The Flight of a Cardinal
by King of Cardinals
Summary: After being punished for the Forever Fall Incident, Cardin Winchester is forced to take solo a mission as a requirement. However what was originally supposed to be a routine assignment suddenly goes wrong. Leading to a chain of events that ends up with Cardin waking up in a world that is very different yet similar to his own. Rated T for now.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 Down The Giant Purple Swirling Rabbit Hole

Cardin Winchester was not having a good time. Which would be odd since It was the week of the Vytal festival, a celebration of peace and unity amongst the four kingdoms. There were parades, parties and numerous places where the all around mood was happy go lucky. So one would be forgiven for being confused on why Cardin was feeling like this.

It was quite simply really Cardin wasn't in the Vytal Tournament. At least not anymore he was. His team was still technically in it but that was it. They wouldn't make it past the doubles rounds without him. He was the one that carried them through the first round after all. No, he wasn't allowed to participate because Professor Goodwitch knew about the Forever Fall fiasco. She'd let Cardin think he'd gotten away with it for almost the entire semester only to bring it up now during the Vytal Tournament.

It was a sour memory that was for sure.

* * *

**In Miss Goodwitchs Office**

"Do you know why I have called you too my office today?" Professor Goodwitch asked.

"No not really, but I'm under the impression you do." Cardin answered back as politely as he could, trying his best not to let his sarcasm seep through. He'd rather be anywhere but here right now.

"Do you remember our trip to Forever Fall Forest?" Professor Goodwitch asked.

Cardin grit his teeth at the mention of the place but did his best to prevent it from showing on his face "Yes I remember the trip, we were assigned to collect jars of sap for Professor Peach." Cardin responded.

"Yes, you and your team were attacked by an Ursa Major and if I remember correctly you had to be saved by Jaune Arc." Professor Goodwitch said. She wasn't showing it but Cardin knew that she was smirking on the inside. It made Cardins blood boil to think of how that pathetic weakling had to help him while his team ran for the hills. Jaune was nothing but a weakling and Cardin certainly would never need to be saved by someone so worthless in the first place.

"That sounds familiar, yes." Cardin answered fully intent on not acknowledging that statement.

"I also remember something else, something involving rapier wasps." Goodwitch commented offhandedly putting a finger to her chin in thought.

Cardins heart skipped a beat. "_She couldn't know. Could she? Jaune couldn't have told her, it was an unspoken agreement, Cardin wouldn't rat out his transcripts and Jaune wouldn't mention the stuff he did for Cardin." _"I don't know what your talking about Professor." Cardin decided denial was the safest option.

"Not to be crass Mr. Winchester but I'll call bullshit. I know all about what you did to Jaune and your attempt to "get even" with Ms. Nikos." Professor Goodwitch revealed. "And you will be punished accordingly."

Cardin was in shock. "How?" was the only he could only say. It quickly turned to rage however "it was Jaune wasn't it, that son of bit-."

"No Mr. Winchester, it was not Mr. Arc. Do you take me for a fool? That I wouldn't notice when one team leader grows distant from his team and starts hanging out with another? Especially with one as colorful a reputation as yours? She asked rhetorically.

Cardin made to open his mouth. But Professor Goodwitch cut him off.

"Of course I did. I made sure to keep an eye on your team during that field trip. I heard all about how you held Mr. Arcs forged transcripts over his head and planned to attack Ms. Nikos." She explained.

"Why tell me all of this now? Cardin asked. Before the realization hit him "Wait you knew about his transcripts! And you let him into Beacon anyway and just allowed him to take the spot of someone more deserving! He isn't some kind of huntsman he's a weakling!" Cardin said failing to hide the anger in his voice.

"While I didn't know at first why Headmaster Ozpin approved of him, Professor Ozpin knew from the beginning. So any problems about Mr. Arcs acceptance should be taken up with the Headmaster. Secondly as far as I'm concerned Mr. Arc has shown more qualities and poise of being a huntsman than you have Mr. Winchester. I only let you off scot free for the time being because I hoped you would take the time to consider your actions and correct them as well as apologize for your behavior." She stated, "However, I have seen that you have made no such effort on your part, you have continued to lord your power over others. Therefore I will be assigning you your punishment now."

"What are you going to do expell me? I'll just go to the council and reveal how the school let an unqualified crook like Jaune in. The schools reputation will plummet." Cardin bit back trying his best not to raise his voice. "Jaune is nothing compared to me he's weak, how dare you try and say otherwise!"

"Trust me Mr. Winchester that fact is the only reason you aren't being expelled. No your punishment will be a solo assignment far out in the outskirts of Vale. Consequently you will not be participating in the Vytal Tournament past the first round. Only the team round will you be allowed to enter in in order to keep the appearance of normalcy." Professor Goodwitch said.

"What! I'm the strongest on my team they need me in order to stand a chance." Cardin argued and thought fast. "You're punishing them unfairly as well." Cardin was grasping at straws for a reason to be put back in the Tournament.

"Oh I know. In fact that is part of their punishment. This should hopefully teach them a lesson about how much work they have to do to catch up with the likes of team RWBY and JNPR whom they have fallen far behind. Maybe being outclassed in the festival will teach them that lesson." Goodwitch countered Cardins reasoning.

"That's unfair I'm a huntsman in training!" Cardin once again lost his temper.

"Mr. Winchester I'm afraid if you don't cooperate with me I will be forced to bring your father in on this matter." Professor Goodwitch threatened.

The White hot anger in Cardins blood cooled instantly and he sat back down in his seat.

Professor Goodwitch saw this and continued "Good, your assignment will be a standard grimm extermination near one of Vale's smaller mining villages. After that you will be required to bring back a sample of ore and dust from the mines and write a ten page essay on it. After that you will have detention for the rest of the school year. You leave on a bullhead as soon as your first round match is over." She mandated.

"Also Mr. Arc has had significant improvements with the help of Ms. Nikos over the past quarter." And this time Professor Goodwitch did smirk saying that.

* * *

**Present**

So here Cardin was getting off the Bullhead at the town of Dreary Wood. Cardins team had made it past the first round obviously. They still had him after all. He won a two on one while his teammates used their numbers to finish off the other half of the enemy team. Despite what other people would say about him namely teams JNPR and RWBY Cardin was a prodigy in his own right. First in his class and months younger than most of his classmates, he was closer to 17 than 18 half way through the school year since he was 16 when the school year started. Cardin was the engine that made team CRDL run.

Unlike the team of generational talents that was team RWBY and NPR who could afford to be without one of their members for a fight and still dominate, team CRDL's firepower without Cardin in the mix was practically zero.

Which is why it was so infuriating that Professor Goodwitch had insinuated that Jaune Arc was better than him in any way, least of all being a huntsman. If Jaunes team lost Jaune they'd merely be down a meat shield at worst. What the hell did she know? He had been trained since he was 8 to be a huntsman. There was no way in hell scrawny Jaune could surpass him.

He had more aura than practically all of the first years accept for Jaune. His physical strength was second to none no matter what Nora or Yang claimed, honed from years of adherence to daily workouts focused on pure brawn and a diet that was almost entirely protein.

The fact he wasn't in the Tournament made certain things even worse too. Such as the fact he'd kept his semblance a secret and the chain function of his mace hidden. Those things gave Cardin range and the element of surprise. It was all a waste of effort and planning Cardin guessed.

It's one of the reasons that Cardin felt team RWBY was stupid. The fact they let everyone know about their semblances. The most deadly weapon was the one that no one saw after all. Cardin knew with his semblance he could easily level the playing field with the heavy hitters of his class. Of course that was all useless now since he wouldn't be in the Tournament. He'd lost some matches in combat class that should have been easy wins for him if he allowed himself to use his semblance and/ or the chain in his mace.

Cardin hoped his team would do well without him. But on the inside he knew they wouldn't. They weren't Jaune weak, merely middle of the pack. But being in the middle of the pack didn't get you far in the Vytal Tournament.

Professor Goodwitch told him that the trip to Dreary Wood would take around a day since it was that far out in the outskirts of the kingdom. He had 3 days once he got there to clear the grimm out and collect the samples. By the time he got back on the bullhead the Vytal Tournament would be over. For all he knew something crazy could happen while he was gone.

Cardin walked up the rickety old mayor's house that was in the middle of the village. He saw the looks that the residents gave him. Most of them of suspicion or fear. After all, many villagers didn't trust huntsman because of the power they held and how hard they were to hold accountable for there actions. It was only natural for the weak to fear the strong.

Like anyone else giving him those kinds of looks Cardin simply ignored them and walked up to the front door of the Mayor's house and knocked.

There was a shuffling sound and footsteps came towards the foot before it opened up to a short old geezer. Who had gray hair and a mustache reminiscent of Professor Port.

"Ah, you must be the student sent by Beacon Academy to take care of our grimm problem. Thank you for coming." He said.

"Yes I am sir, thank you for having me." Cardin said in fake politeness acting in all the world like he wanted to be here.

"Well if you're up to it you can get started early on your mission, that path over there leads over to our dust mines. There have been reports of a pack of Beowolves being spotted nearby last night." The mayor offered.

For once Cardin was thinking the same thing. If he could finish the assignment in one day he could get back to Beacon faster. If his team had somehow made it past the doubles round he might even be able to fight in the singles round for his team.

So Cardin said a quick actual sincere thanks to the mayor and made his way up the path to the village quarry.

* * *

**CRACK**

The Beowulf's skull split open with one well placed strike to the jaw by Cardin's mace. That was the last of them. Cardin took a deep breath and looked around. The forms of about 15 Beowolves were slowly evaporating.

The report had said it was a pack of Beowolves so Cardin assumed he finished that part of the mission at least. He looked down at his scroll it had only been a couple hours since he'd set off on his objective.

It was arguably harder to find the Beowolves than fight them. Especially since Cardin was able to use his semblance to fight without having to worry about anyone seeing it and figuring out its capabilities. It was a light workout for him and he was sweating slightly.

It was getting dark out. It would be time to head back to the village and stay at the inn in a bit. Cardin was less than enthusiastic about sleeping on some flea infested mattress. That's why he decided he still had enough time to gather the first of his samples from the mines before heading back.

The entrance to the mine was large and looked like some giant mouth that threatened to swallow him whole, even more ominous with the waning daylight making the shadows move. But what would have scarred a lesser man like Jaune did not deter Cardin. He simply walked in with his flashlight ready.

The mine was stripped and overused, that much Cardin could tell by looking at. Which sucked because that meant that Cardin would have to go further down into the mine in order to find all of the samples.

The samples were easy normal coal, iron and bronze along with some other common metals. What was gonna be tough though was the dust. Specifically Gravity Dust. One of the rarest forms of dust, doubly so when you take into account that he was in Vale not Mantle. With the properties to resist the power of earth itself. Cardin preferred fire dust when using his mace _Executioner _but he sometimes used gravity dust when he could afford it. He could see why it was so widely sought after. Able to do things like lift the likes of Amity Colosseum high above the ground and far out of the reach of ordinary Grimm.

The reason that Cardin believed he was assigned to gather it in the first place was because he felt Ms Goodwitch wanted an excuse for him to gather and get it for her. She used it in her cape after all. It was probably the icing on the cake for forcing him on this mission.

The farther down into the mine Cardin went the darker it got. So Cardin was forced to slow down his pace to make sure he didn't miss anything important like the ores.

Being left alone with his thoughts once again made Cardin angry. How dare they do this to him! He was Cardin Winchester soon to be the strongest and most admired huntsman of his generation if not ever.

The title made him think of Pyrrha. His mood soured again. She'd beaten him, he could have lived with that since he'd beat her eventually. But no she'd beaten him and his entire team. It wasn't even a fight, as his partners were systematically taken out in front of him. Except Dove. But close enough. Then she'd humiliated Cardin in front of the whole class. He knew it was some sort of revenge for what he'd done to Jaune, after all she knew about the secret to his transcripts as well.

What did she see in him that she'd let him stay at beacon much less defend him and train him? He didn't deserve it, any of it. But for some reason everyone seemed to pity Jauney Boy. Meanwhile Cardin was the only one who seemed to have any common sense.

***Growl***

That shook Cardin out of his thoughts. He scanned his surroundings. A pair of red eyes glowed in the dark not to far away from him.

He pulled out his mace and got into a defensive stance. The creature emerged from the shadows to reveal itself.

Somehow doing that made Cardin fume with rage even more. It was a fucking Ursa Major. Just another reminder about Jaune Arc and Cardins failure in Forever Fall Forest to defeat it and needing to be helped by a wimp like Jaune.

Well this thing was in for a big surprise. In Forever Fall Forest Cardin had lost his weapon and been surprised that was why he'd lost. Not only had he gotten stronger he also was armed this time.

The Ursa Major stalked forward in an attempt to intimidate Cardin growling and drooling. Naturally it had no effect on Cardin who had spent sessions after class with the likes of Professor Goodwitch before.

Seeing this the Ursa Major abandoned its strategy and charged forward to dice Cardin up into chopped liver. As soon as it came close though he leaned back and let the swipe fly harmlessly over him.

While the thing was off balance Cardin swung his arm back and smacked his mace right into the knee joint of the Ursa Major.

It collapsed on the ground in pain and Cardin took the chance to put some distance between him and its powerful arms.

It recovered fairly quickly but it had an obvious limp in its hind leg. Cardin was already thinking about how he would make it suffer. It was the perfect thing to vent his weeks worth of anger on after all.

The Ursa Major seeing that it couldn't simply bulldoze through its opponent watched Cardin with a wary glance. A clear sign that this grimm was more intelligent than others. Cardin would need to be more cautious, it was always the intelligent grimm that got even the most powerful and experienced of huntsmen.

Cardin looked around at his surroundings while making sure the Ursa didn't try anything funny. The cavern roof was low. Still high enough for him to comfortably using the compacted form of his mace, but the chain was out of the question. It would be too difficult to maneuver in the tight space for him to effectively use that feature.

The Ursa Major was stalking at Cardin but keeping out of his range and Cardin followed suit. It was like two animals circling each other before an inevitable bloody fight to the death occurred. It was one that Cardin fully intended to win.

Cardin took the initiative this time and was the first one to strike. He leapt forward mace ready to do some serious damage. He made sure to come at an angle that was on the side that he'd drawn first blood on. This way the Ursa would have less maneuverability in dodging his blows.

The Ursa Major reacted accordingly and raised its arm up to block the blow. It came in contact with the white bony armor that covered the grimms black exterior. His mace wasn't meant for precision strikes. The blow connected with a clang and scratched along the side of the plated armor.

The Ursa howled in pain. But Cardins blown was superficial. At best there was a couple cracks at the point of impact but other than that the armor had done its job and prevented a serious injury from being sustained by the Ursa Major.

Thinking fast Cardin covered his free fist in a coating of aura and launched a punch right at the grimms ugly maw.

One would think that attacking the mouth that could easily bite a normal person's arm would be a bad idea but Cardin was confident in his durability. That and that the Ursa would still be focused on the attack targeted at its paws.

It was and an aura powered fist made contact with the things snout. It retreated backward in pain. Cardin grinned at its fury. He did not see however the free paws swipe at his side.

He was hit with the force of what felt like an enraged Yang. He shot backwards feet digging into the ground arms crossed out in front of him.

His arms were numb in the outside. Now Cardin was pissed. Screw hit and run tactics just fucking bludgeon it to death Cardin thought.

With an enraged roar Cardin stomped forward to meet the Ursa. It did the same. Mace and Claws met in the middle. A shock wave erupted from the clash,, dust and dirt was kicked up by it and swirled throughout the mines environment.

When it settled the two beings were still stuck in a stalemate. The Ursa seeing this pushed more strength into its arms intent on forcing Cardin to submit in the contest of strength.

Cardin started to bend and took a step back. The Ursa Major seemed to perceive this as weakness and pushed further even more. But on its third step it suddenly hit a steel wall.

Cardin glared back at eyes full of fury. He took his own step forward. Cardin would prove to this thing that thought it would best him in a battle of strength that it was wrong. Cardin pushed forward even more now moving back the Ursa Major and beating it at its own game.

The Ursa Major having been upstaged by a mere human in terms of might seemed to have enough of this disrespect. Disengaging from the exchange It reared up on its hind legs leaning slightly to its one good side. It roared full of fury and sent down two swipes at Cardin meant to pulverize him into mush.

Cardin ducked down under the first attack. Then using the momentum from crouching shot up with his mace ready. He batted aside the second swing with the _Executioner_. The Ursa was thrown off balance by this and leaned back on its bad leg. This caused it to stumble and become even more disoriented.

Cardin wasn't gonna pass this chance up. Placing both hands on the _Executioner _Cardin gripped it tightly and activated the Dust mechanism inside his weapon. The tip of the _Executioner _whirled into action and flames burst to life.

He swung with all of his might at the Ursa Majors unarmored underside. The spot most difficult to get to. But the Grimm had let itself open when standing on its hind legs. He would never miss such a large opening or target.

Cardins dust and aura powered swing hit home making contact with the Ursa Majors center stomach area. The strike exploded as soon as it did in a beautiful explosion of fire and black blood.

The Ursas form crumpled with the blow and like a professional baseball player hitting a baseball off a tee it was sent rocketing into the wall on the other side of the mine. Resulting in a huge cloud of smoke and rock.

"_Let's see someone like Jaune do that, anyone do that for that matter." _Cardin thought smugly. This was just another example of his power and how wrong Professor Goodwitch was.

The debris surrounding the spot where the Ursa Major was turned to paste was clearing. And if Cardin wasn't paying attention, he probably would have missed what had happened.

Not quite believing it he took out his flashlight and shown it over in the area. He wasn't seeing things it seemed. Over in the wall was a giant hole. It had been thin enough that when Cardin had blasted the Ursa into it it had collapsed and revealed the space behind it.

He walked over to it and when no Ursa Major popped up to try and surprise Cardin walked even closer.

It lead to a long winding path way that was completely shrouded in darkness and Cardins flash light didn't reach all the way down.

He turned around and looked it into the main path way carved by the village miners. Cardin could continue down that path and he'd eventually find all samples he was looking for. "_Or?" _Cardin thought "_I could go down this new path." _He didn't know what was down there, possibly nothing at all. He could head back on the main tunnel and guarantee himself to find everything he needed. But the idea of exploring a new tunnel was infinitely more exciting.

Cardins curiosity warred with his common sense. Eventually his curiosity won out when he realized he'd have to do those essays when he collected those ores and dust. So Cardin set foot into the new and unknown tunnel.

He started slow at first dual wielding his mace and his flashlight. The new tunnel was a lot smaller than the main one. Cardin was only an inch or two from hitting his head on the caverns ceiling. Though the fact he was sporting a large 6' 7" frame probably wasn't helping. The tunnel was wide enough for him to stretch his arms out but that was it. He'd only be able to use his mace in front of him.

The tunnel was long and windy with a relatively flat path with a few depressions. Cardin had considered giving up and turning around a few times. Only the thought of having to sleep in the inn and come back the next day to write the essays stopping him.

After a bit Cardin noticed the change in the tunnel structure, it had risen a bit now more than half a foot separating his head from the ceiling. The walls had widened enough for him to swing his mace as well.

Cardin foot stubbed into a rock and he tripped and fell to the ground. Cursing and muttering he fumbled around for his light. He could barely see the flash light in the dim light. Wait, dim light?

Sure enough a dull purple glow was emanating from a distance away and allowed Cardin to see his flashlight on the ground.

Cardin picked it up and hastily made his way toward the source of the colorful glow. It continued to get brighter the closer he got, to the point where he no longer needed his flashlight.

The mouth of the tunnel opened up into a giant room equal in size to the practice arena at Beacon Academy. At least that's what Cardin estimated it was. The size wasn't the important part though. No the thing that had drawn Cardins attention was the stuff that was littered all over the caverns walls, floor, and ceiling.

Shards of glowing purple crystal. Gravity Dust. They were in all shapes and sizes. Clusters and by themselves, thin and small and big and fat. But there was one thing that was the same for everyone of those shards. They were all exceedingly pure.

Cardin was no expert on dust like the Schnee know it all but he didn't need to be in order to tell it was high grade dust because of how translucent it was. This stuff was practically worth a fortune. Even a single shard would fetch a high price on the open market, the entire cavern full of it would be enough to make even the SDC nervous.

Cardin immediately thought of how much he could make if he was to bring it all back to beacon. He'd be able to bribe off Professor Goodwitch with a small chunk and still be set for life. Cardins delusions of grandeur hit a snag when he thought about the logistics of it. The amount would take days to mine and even more transport. Cardin would need an entire crew to work this.

Plus there was the danger of mining such pure dust as well. The faunus protested a lot about their injustices and crimes against them but Cardin could agree with them on the dangers of the dust mine.

He'd had an uncle of his tell him plenty of stories about the dangers workers faced when extracting Remnants most precious material. Things like cave ins, grimm attacks and miners lung were common. This wasn't even taking into account the dust itself. Cardins uncle had told him stories of how one wrong hit to a crystal of dust could cause a reaction with enough power to kill a normal civilian. It was even worse when a chain reaction occurred and all the other dust crystals nearby blew up as well. A gruesome tale Cardin had been told was that an entire vein of Fire dust had gone off in a big mine up in Atlas. The explosion had been so intense that the blast had reached the entrance of the mine all the way from down where the vein was found. All the workers in the mine had died because of it, the bodies had been indistinguishable because of how charred they were.

That had been a single vein of fire dust, the amount of gravity dust here dwarfed that and was purer too. Cardin would have to be extremely cautious in order to not set if off and kill himself in an explosion or the cave in that would definitely follow.

He walked to the center of the cavern where a single crystal was separated from the rest. He looked at its base, it didn't seem connected to the rest of the dust in here. Cardin thought that it was the safest. He kneeled down and slowly pulled the shard out of the ground, being extra soft as to not set it of by accident.

Once Cardin had secured it he took off his travel pack. He hadn't warn it during the Ursa fight obviously, he just threw it to the side before it began and picked up when he was done. He'd anticipated a longer time tracking the pack Beowolves so he'd packed a change of clothes, a couple meals and a sleeping bag. He took out the specially crafted case meant to store the dust and samples.

Cardin took a look at his own dust. He was down to one vial of Fire Dust. When Cardin got back to Beacon he'd have to buy some more. He placed the pure chunk of gravity dust in the container and stocked his mace with the final vial of Fire Dust.

"_Well that's the gravity dust part of the assignment done. That was supposed to be the hardest part anyway. I'll head back to the village and tell them about this dust deposit. Who knows maybe I could convince them to let me have a cut of it. I did find it after all." _Cardin mused to himself.

***GROWL***

"_You have got to be kidding me!" _Cardin thought.

He turned around to see a single Beowulf coming in through the small tunnel Cardin had come through. This must have been a straggler from the pack he killed earlier in the day. It must have tracked him all the way here.

It glared at Cardin before charging and pouncing at him. Cardin acted on instinct and brought his mace up to defend himself from the hostile beast. He caught it in the side of the head.

It's momentum halted and changed direction following the swing of the mace. It flew to the ground and landed on a patch of Gravity Dust. Cardin immediately felt his stomach drop. To much force could cause the dust to have a volatile reaction!

The shards visible underneath the Beowulf started to glow a bright purple and Cardin feared he'd actually caused a chain reaction. But just when it seemed like the material was about to burst it began to dull back down to its dormant state.

Cardin sighed, that had been too close. Cardin was knocked off his feet when a black blur plowed into his midsection and had to hold back a snapping pair of jaws from ripping Cardins face off. Shit! Cardin had been so worried about the Dust he made a rookie mistake and taken his eyes off of the grimm.

The beasts drool was getting on his face. He had dropped his mace to prevent its jaws from taking his throat off so Cardin was holding it back with his bare hands. Thinking fast Cardin rolled to the side using the momentum to throw the grimm away from him. Not even bothering to look where it landed Cardin jumped to his feet and grabbed his weapon.

A whimpering howl caused him to jump back and find the Beowulf. It was impaled on one of the larger Dust crystals in the cavern. It looked at Cardin from its angle.

It began thrashing all over the place intent on causing the most damage possible in its dying moments. This meant scratching and clawing all the nearby gravity dust crystals. Cardin paled at the sight, he was under no illusion that he would get lucky a second time. He turned and ran toward the entrance he had come from. Behind him he heard the whines and cracks of glass shattering. That was the volatile gravity dust activating Cardin had to get out of here!

Cardin was almost to the entrance. But then Cardin felt it. It started of as merely a small tug at first but it continued to get stronger. The gravity dust was sucking Cardin in! He strained against the force of attraction with all his might. He took another step forward, but this one was slower than the last, which had been slower than the one before it and so on. Cardin was now advancing at a snail's pace, worse yet was that Cardin was feeling himself slip and move backward.

It was no use Cardin realized. He was going to be pulled in by the sheer gravity of the reaction. Then Cardin would be crushed into a tiny ball. The pull was now actually starting to lift him off of the ground it was getting so strong. The force grew exponentially from there and suddenly Cardin found himself speeding toward the mass of ever increasing purple mist and rock.

Cardin did the only thing that he possibly could do at the moment. He activated his semblance. Taking in a deep breath Cardin felt himself be surrounded by the familiar purple glow of his semblance. The force was still pulling him back but it was no longer pressing down on him threatening to crush him. The pain disappeared.

This was the magic of Cardins semblance. All he needed to do was to hold his breath and concentrate for him to become practically completely immune to physical damage. No matter how hard someone hit him or shot him it wouldn't hurt him. Normal people would view this as an op semblance but that wasn't true. It had many drawbacks that balanced it out when compared to weaker but more spambable semblance. For starters his semblance would only activate when he held his breath and while activated Cardin would become a lot heavier. Heavy enough that it was unlikely even a stampeding Goliath could move from his place. Which while could be a positive in some cases, was just as likely to be detrimental in a fight as well.

Cardin had compensated for this by building his strength so he could move more effectively while using it. But it was difficult to do tiresome and complex things holding his breath. Right now was one such problem.

Cardin would be completely at the gravity dusts mercy if he lost his breath right now. He wouldn't have the time to take another breath. The moment Cardin would be folded inward by the amount of force pressing down on him. No, Cardin would have to hold his breath as long as the reaction took place in order to have a chance at surfing this. Cardin was being held in pace against the ball of purple energy forming, unable to move a muscle. He saw the walls surrounding him being to warp into bends and curves. Was the gravity so much that it was even affecting the way his eyes perceived light? Like some kind of black hole?

He wasn't sure as his vision was beginning to go dark. It was probably the lack of oxygen going to his brain. Cardin had never trained himself to hold his breath this long. If Cardin passed out now he would be crushed! Cardin rallied on his Winchester family stubbornness, fully intending to hold his breath as long as possible and where many other people would have given up Cardin persevered.

His vision continued to darken and Cardin began to feel a sinking feeling all around him. Like he was going down in quicksand. It was probably a feeling brought on by his body hallucinating.

It continued sinking and his vision was completely black now so he couldn't see anything going on around him. His lungs were on fire and felt like they were being torn apart. Still Cardin refused to take another breath.

It was gone. The sinking feeling gone. So was the crushing pressure too. Cardin couldn't see what had happened but it was at this moment he passed out. Whether he would live to take another breath was unknown to him as his consciousness faded.

* * *

**Place and Time Unknown**

Everything hurt and Cardin felt incredibly weak when he woke up. He woke up, Cardin realized, that was a plus. His vision was incredible blurry when he opened his eyes and Cardins mind was foggy, unable to string together a sequence of coherent thoughts.

Dust, semblance, breath, death and life bounced around the inside of Cardins head. It took a couple of moments for his mind to put itself back together as he recovered from the life and death situation Cardin had found himself in some time ago.

It slowly came back to him. The Gravity Dust, using his semblance to save himself, passing out from overuse and the danger he had been in.

Cardin slowly rolled himself over onto his stomach and picked himself off the ground. It took every ounce of strength he had to do it and keep his body from falling right back over. His vision cleared and he finally got a glimpse of where he was.

He wasn't in the mine for sure since Cardin wasn't buried underneath a mountain of rubble that would have surely come after the explosion of Gravity Dust. In fact Cardin was above ground right now which by all accounts didn't make sense.

He wasn't going to question his luck though. Cardin continued to look around, it was a forest of some kind not one with the large tower trees like the Emerald Forest or Forever Fall Forest. These were much smaller, the ones Cardin would find in a park at vale.

It was night time right now. Then Cardin looked down at himself. He was still in one piece that was great, his armor was on still and had been protected by his semblance. So had his travel pack and mace which were one his back and attached to his hip respectively.

Cardin brought his scroll out to call for a Bullhead pickup. But there was no signal which was just great. He'd have to find a place where he could get a signal.

Cardin looked around again, this time he saw something though he missed last time. Above the treeline far away was a large amount of tall and blinking builds. He didn't recognize them from anywhere, they definitely weren't like that of Vales.

Seeing no other choice Cardin grabbed his stuff and began walking towards the human settlement. It took him about an hour where Cardin was on the constant look out for grimm looking to ambush a lone traveler. But he didn't encounter any, what should have been a stroke of good fortune just worried Cardin more for some reason.

He made it to the edge of the woods and finally got a full look at the settlement. To call it a settlement would be an injustice though. It was definitely city level. Cardin saw moving vehicles going throughout the roads with multiple civilians walking on the sidewalks. The place was more packed than what had Cardin seen at the Vytal Festival with all the tourists in vale at once. How was this place not being besieged by grimm? There surely more people since it was late at night. Even Atlas the safest of the four kingdoms never had this many people bustling around at night due to fear of grimm attacks.

Cardin made to take a step down the hill and into the city but stopped and looked down at himself. He was still in his armor. Cardin didn't know much about this place. Perhaps it would be better to not appear as that much of a threat.

He took off his travel back and brought out the spare pair of clothes he had, jeans, sneakers, a black t-shirt and a long gray jacket. He un-strapped his armor and slipped into the casual attire and placed the pieces of armor in his travel pack.

Cardin kept his mace on him just in case he got into a scuffle or trouble reared its ugly head.

He finally gathered the courage to walk down into the unfamiliar environment.

When Cardin made it out into the open and onto the sidewalk he noticed a couple things. First no one paid him any attention, which was good. Second Cardin was a lot taller than most of the people here. Thirdly was that Cardin recognized none of the logos or signs on the buildings and streets. Where the hell was Musutafu?

Cardin decided he would need to ask someone about where he was and directions to the nearest CTT tower. That way Cardin could call Bescon and inform them about his predicament.

Cardin looked around at the civilians walking around trying to find one that looked like they were nice enough to give him directions.

Cardin saw a small woman walking by herself. She looked good enough. Following her Cardin walked up to her and tapped her on the shoulder.

She spun around quickly with a surprised look on her face. Coming face first with Cardin chest she looked up to meet his eyes.

She took a cautious step back intimidated by him. Cardin put his hands up in placating manner to show he meant no harm.

"Hello, I'm new to town and kind of lost right now can you point me in the direction of the nearest communication building, please? Cardin asked with as polite a tone he could muster.

The women looked at him suspiciously for a second before he eyes travelled to his travel pack. A look of realization dawned on her face. "Oh you're a tourist obviously, we are near the airport I guess. I should have been able to tell by that accent. The customs building is two blocks down from here in that direction." she pointed down the street to her right, "You can't miss it there's a huge sign." She finished.

Cardin didn't know what a customs building was but it sounded like what he was looking for. "Thank you." Cardin said to the lady and turned to the direction she had pointed in.

After a couple of steps she called out after Cardin, "Enjoy your stay here in Japan."

"_What the hell was a Japan?" _Cardin thought.

* * *

**Authors Notes: This is my first idea for a crossover. I was originally going to do something else but this thing just popped into my head and the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea.**

**I started this story on the suggestion that writing multiple projects at once helped prevent you from getting writers block and burnout. So Now I will be working on this story in tandem with Bound to Change.**

**Cardins Semblance, I came up with the idea based on Cardins confidence and belief in himself (ego). He has so much confidence in himself and his abilities that his Pride is able to negate the insults made at him. This manifested in a semblance that completely negates physical damage. Other semblances based on his anger issues were considered but I felt this was more unique.**

**As always your comments and feedback are appreciated.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - Welcome to Earth

"_What the hells a Japan." _Cardin thought. Cardin didn't know. The way the woman had said it made him think that it was the name of the city. Which didn't make any sense to Cardin. Cardin may not have been a superstar at geography and history but he was pretty sure He'd never heard of a place called Japan before.

But it wasn't like Cardin had much of choice right now. So Cardin continued on his way down the lamp lit street. Not only did the place not register in Cardins head but the people weren't similar either. At first glance Cardin had found them to be just like any crowd of people someone would find in one of the Kingdoms, but upon closer inspection Cardin began noticing things. Things like some of the passersby sported weird portions or features on their person. Some seemed to have spiked starfish shaped ears and others had weird dilated eyes. Most of them looked normal with only 2 in 10 people possessing any characteristic that was in Cardins opinion unnatural.

These features were nothing compared to the Faunus though. At least Cardin assumed they were faunus. Most Faunus in Vale only had small animal traits that were easily hidden. What Cardin was seeing was different altogether. These people had entire limbs that were inhuman or animalistic. Though they were a lot scarcer than the other ones with Cardin only seeing one person with an animal feature for every 10 people with an unnatural characteristic.

The rest of the civilians walking on the street seemed completely human to Cardins naked eye. But Cardin kept his guard up just in case.

Cardin continued his stroll downtown to where the woman had told Cardin the communications building had been.

The buildings were similar to vale in design but Cardin could tell they were slightly less advanced. Also they were far more packed with people. Same with the vehicles being driven in the streets.

Cardin was still worried about where he was. He was in a bustling city which he'd never seen before after being stuck in a mine in the middle of nowhere with nothing but an old worn down village nearby. But the fact the city was thriving and not being hostile to Cardin helped to put him at ease.

Cardin was beginning to question if he'd miss heard the women's directions or she had given him incorrect directions on purpose. But it didn't come to that, turning the corner on the second block down Cardin saw an enormous building with a bright lit up sign, behind it in the distance were many other large buildings and what looked like an Atlas airfield. Even in the ever growing night the letters were still visible.

**Japan's International Airport Customs Check In**

It didn't look like any CCT building Cardin had seen before. But he figured it would be worth a shot to check it out anyway.

He walked into doors with a crowd of people coming from the direction of the airfield. They all were lugging suitcases and bags with them. Were they just off from a Bullhead. Cardin hadn't seen any bullheads fly in and there was no way one could hold this many people.

Cardin followed the group of people through the hallways of the building, blending in perfectly with his casual clothing and travel pack on his back. Somehow there was even more people walking inside of the glass walled building. It seemed just as large as the crowd at Amity Colosseum! Cardin saw that many uniformed staff members were walking around and behind various counters, all with different logos above them. Some of the men were walking around in brith neon green yellow vest that had the word SECURITY printed on the back.

Cardin deduced quickly that he was in a commercial transport area. This probably meant that there was a communications outpost nearby with luck. That seemed to be where the group he was a part of was walking.

Cardins group walked up to this long black counter top. It had the most people in line for the counter with about 20 different secretaries at a separate station.

Cardin got in line for one of them, he figured he'd wait in line and get his chance to ask for the next available room for a CCT call. There were about ten people in line in front of Cardin. He looked out the window that made up a large twenty foot wall. It overlooked the airfield.

In the dark sky he made out a red blinking light approaching the runway. Cardins heart stopped. Was it a grimm finally coming down to attack the city? He tensed, hand ready to grab the mace at his hip covered by his gray jacket. Cardin kept his eyes trained on the approaching form. But the closer it got the more confused Cardin was. It got close enough that Cardin realized it was a man made machine. Similar to a Bullhead but different. The size difference was astronomical being hundreds of feet long and two large wings that didn't move at all. It rolled down the runway until coming to a complete stop.

That was weird. Cardin turned back to look in front of him. There were still 3 people in front of him in the line. Cardin was having doubts now that he'd get the answers he was looking for.

"What do you mean canceled!" A voice shouted over to the right of Cardin.

Cardin looked over to see a man dressed in a sharp blue suit in the line next to him, he appeared to be arguing with the attendant behind the counter.

"I'm sorry sir but the flight has been canceled, Here at Japan's International Airport we are willing to book you the next flight available at no extra cost." The attendant said weakly to the man wilting under the person's gaze.

"I don't care about the next flight, I care about the one I'm supposed to be on right now! I'll be late for a business meeting if I don't leave now." The man ranted.

"Once again sir, I regret to inform you that it isn't possible for us to find you a new flight that is heading to your destination in the time frame you are demanding." The attendant repeated.

The man seemed to grow red from anger. He slammed his hands on the counter and his jet black hair burst into flames. "No you listen here! I want a new flight now." He yelled.

The people all around of the man backed up and the attendant fell back. Cardin couldn't believe what he was seeing, was that flaming hair that man's semblance? Didn't that mean he had his aura unlocked?

Before the man could say anything further a jet of water blasted into him putting out his fire/hair and knocking him to the ground. A Security guard ran past Cardin and jumped down on top of the man who'd been arguing. He slapped a pair of restraint cuffs on the man. Cardin noticed the security guards hands were dripping with water. Was he the one who shot out the water?

"Sir for the illegal use of a Quirk I am placing you 7nder arrest and restraing you until the authorities arrive.

"_Quirk? What was that? Was it another word they used for semblance." _ Cardin thought.

As two more security guards showed up and dragged the suited man away Cardin began hearing mumblings form the people in line around him.

"No control."

"He used his Quirk like that."

"That could have been dangerous."

"I almost ended up using my own Quirk there."

"People with a powerful Quirk think they can get whatever they want don't they."

Cardin listened to them, noted the reactions and filed them away in the back of his just in case they became useful later on.

The line moved again and now Cardin was the next up in line. He listened carefully to what was happening in front of him so he had a grasp of what he was getting into.

The female attendant at the desk held out her hand to the person in front of Cardin.

"ID please." She asked.

The person in front handed her a small booklet. The attendant looked over it for a second. Then she nodded, "all set, only one question left. Have you manifested a Quirk?" She asked.

"Yes." The person answered.

The woman behind the counter stamped the booklet and then handed a pamphlet from under the desk to the person.

"Next." The woman called as the person left the line for somewhere else. Cardin stepped forward to the desk.

The woman looked up at him for a second before asking "ID Please." She held out her hand.

Cardin was worried. Cardin didn't have that same booklet the person in front of him had. Would Cardin get in trouble if he didn't. Cardin took out his scroll and pulled up his profile and passport that was on it. He handed it over to the woman.

Cardin silently held his breath as she looked down at it, hoping she wouldn't call him out not having the correct identification papers. It was a tense couple of seconds before she looked back at him.

"Vale huh, I never heard of that place. It's somewhere in America right." She guessed.

"Yeah it is." Cardin said. "_Sure, let's go with that." _Cardin thought. If these people didn't know anything about Vale then he didn't want to draw any attention to himself.

"Well your all set and registered into the system, I only have one question left. Have you manifested a Quirk?" She asked.

Cardin thought about it for a second. He wasn't sure but Cardin guessed that Quirks were like these people's semblances or what not. And Cardin did have a semblance. Yes." Cardin answered.

"Ok, here you go, enjoy your time here in Japan. The main exit is over there down the hall and to the left. You can grab a bus down to one of Japan's main tourist hotels." The Lady said handing Cardin the same pamphlet as the person before him.

"Actually I was wondering if there was a place I could make long distance calls right now." Cardin asked before leaving.

"Well sir many of the hotels in the city have a long distance call room for tourists wanting to make calls to their family out of the country. You should be able to find one wherever you're your staying." She answered.

That's what Cardin was looking for. So all Cardin had to do was take a bus down to a hotel and he'd be able to make a call back to Beacon to explain his predicament as well as the odd place he was in. As Cardin walked down to the path the Lady had pointed out to him Cardin looked down at the pamphlet in his hands. It read:

**Japanese Quirk Regulations and Rules**

There was a picture of a person in a tight spandex suit and cape billowing in the wind with their hand giving a thumbs up. Cardin found the picture pretty amusing. Inside the pamphlet was a bunch of rules and regulations surrounding these "Quirks".

**When a Quirk manifests itself during adolescence the Adolescent who obtained a quick must go through "Quirk Counseling" To better adapt to their new power and prevent them from being a danger to society.**

**Any public use and/or display of one's Quirk is strictly prohibited. Violators will be punished to the full extent of the law. Instances of self defense are the only exception.**

Really? Cardin wasn't allowed to use his semblance. What about Huntsmen and Huntresses?

Cardin looked further down the list.

**Only Pro Heroes and Hero Academy Students with their Provincial licenses may be permitted to use their Quirks in the field. **

Pro Heroes? "_That must be what they call their Huntresses and Huntsmen." _Cardin thought. Cardin would be fine them since he had his Beacon ID.

Cardin looked up from his reading and saw that he was at the exit now. He walked out to the side walk and over to the blue bus sign where everyone else was waiting.

He still had some time before the Shuttle arrived so he brought out his scroll once more. Still no connection to the CCT towers? Even if Cardin couldn't make long distance calls he should have been at least able to connect to the local tower and search for stuff on the internet or check the news.

He could only use things like his ID, Aura meter, calculator and clock function on his scroll right now.

Cardin put his scroll back in his coat pocket and looked up to see the shuttle combing into the pick up point.

All the people at the stop with him walked up to the automatic doors and climbed aboard. Cardin did the same, walking up the stairs and past the bus driver, he grabbed a window seat that didn't have anyone else sitting in it.

"Next stop is the 4 Heroes Hotel." The driver called out before starting the engine and beginning the drive to his destination.

The "4 Heroes Hotel" that sounded like an inn that served mainly Huntsmen and Huntresses. Cardin would get off there, chances were that a long distance communication network would be set up there for Huntsmen and Huntresses making reports back to their Kingdoms.

Cardin looked out the window and towards the city scape as it passed by. It was looking so lively compared to nights at Vale. Cardin found it nice and uplifting. The huge city also didn't seem to be suffering from grimm attacks which was a huge question on Cardins mind. Was the city's patrols of Huntsmen and Huntresses that good that none ever made it to the main populace?

He let the sounds and sights of the urban areas soak in and watched in silence as it all slowly went by. His Travel pack was at his side and he'd stuffed his mace in there too. Cardin had seen the way the authorities had handled the man with the flaming hair, it would be best not to be seen walking around with a weapon.

Cardin was snapped out of his daydreaming by the shuttle coming to a halt.

"This is the 4 Heroes Hotel stop, anyone staying here please get off the bus. Next stop is the Orange Plaza." The driver announced over the shuttle intercom.

Cardin got up from his seat, grabbed his bag and made his way to the front of the bus and out the door to the entrance of a moderately sized building with a grand exterior.

The Hotels sign was in big block letters colored red, white and blue. He walked through the automatic doors. The lobby was nice and comfortable by Cardins standards with cushioned chairs and tables scattered around the floor.

The reception desk was nearby with a single receptionist waiting. Cardin began walking over to the desk before freezing.

How would Cardin pay for a room. He didn't have any lien on him. The people at Dreary Wood had been expecting him and prepared a room at the inn, especially for him. That was even if the people in this city even used lien as a form of currency.

Cardin didn't have any way to pay to stay the night and use the communication room! Cardin would be kicked out onto the streets. What was he gonna do?

The sound of clapping was heard nearby and Cardin turned his attention to it.

A man was standing in front of the receptionist desk in a black and red suit. A large crowd of people were watching and listening to him. Cardin walked over as well to see what was going on.

When he got close enough to the crowd Cardin was able to see the name tag on the mans suit. It read:

**MANAGER GREEN**

"Thank you all for coming down from your rooms tonight and to those of you just coming in from tonight's flights I have exciting news for you all as well as an opportunity." Manager Green spoke to the crowd while gesturing to a white sheet that was covering something underneath it.

A murmur of questions shifted through the crowd.

"As I'm sure all of you know the U. A. High initiation will be commencing in the near future. And I speak for all the chains of the 4 Heroes Hotel when I say that we are avid supporters of our future generation of heroes." Mr. Green said.

U.A.? What was that? Cardin didn't know exactly what the manager was talking about but it seemed to be a sponsorship of some sort.

"So to show our appreciation for our next generation, we here at the 4 Heroes Hotel will be holding a competition." Mr. Green announced.

Cardin was intrigued. What kind of competition?

"The prize will be an all expense paid package at the 4 Heroes Hotel until the day of the U.A. Initiation. This includes a room, breakfast and access to all other utilities." Manger Green cheered.

A free room! That was just what Cardin needed. He couldn't believe his luck. All Cardin needed to do was win the competition and he'd be able to call beacon. Then ask for a Bullhead to come pick him up wherever it was he was and simply wait here at the hotel until they arrived for him.

Cardin hesitated though, he would need to win the prize first and he didn't know what semblances or Quirks as they called them, of his opponents.

"The contest is simple." Manager Green tore off the white sheet to reveal a set of weights and a bar, "who ever can lift the most weight will win the prize of the free room."

"Oh and before you all ask, yes you can use your Quirks. May I introduce you all to our special guest Sansa Tamakawa." Mr. Green pointed to a man dressed in a police uniform over by the edge of the crowd. What made this Sansa character stand out though was the fact his entire head was that of an orange cat.

"He will be here to observe and mediate the use of Quirks during this event. As well as keep us all safe." Mr. Green continued, "Now without further adieu let us begin! All participants please line up over there." He shouted.

Most of the people in the lobby went over to participate. But those who were either to young or to old abstained from competing and instead went and sat down to watch. Cardin was at the very back of the line. It was simple really, going last would allow him to know what he needed to do in order to win.

The first couple of people to go did okay getting up to 15 and 20 kilograms. But the current record stalled around 56 kilograms. Cardin knew he could easily beat that. But he knew that he probably shouldn't go all out or it would draw a bunch of unwanted attention that Cardin would rather not deal with.

With three people left to go before Cardin was up the weight to beat had risen all the way up to 114 kilograms. The people in front of Cardin failed to lift the new weight.

It was now Cardins turn to walk up to the center of the crowd and try his shot at the weight.

When he was making his way to the center he heard murmurs in the crowd.

"Look mom, look how tall that guy is."

"He looks like he might have a chance at beating it."

"The guys built like a tank."

"He's pretty hot."

Cardin ignored it all. He was too focused on planning the call he was gonna make to Beacon after he one this.

"You're the last one to compete lad, I wish you the best of luck." The manager patted Cardin on the shoulder as he passed by.

Cardin looked down at the bar with the weights all piled it. He looked around at the crowd before grabbing another plate and sliding it on. Cardin doing this was showing he was confident he could lift it without proving he could tie the record.

Cardin bent his knees and lowered his arms down to grip the bar tightly. For a huntsman in training like him this was nothing. But he would need to make it look convincing.

So putting on his best acting face Cardin flexed his muscles and began to lift the bar slowly off the ground. Cardin made sure to grit his teeth and make it look like he was straining to lift the weight in his arms. Slowly but surely Cardin brought it up to his chest.

The crowd erupted into cheers and applause. Cardin dropped the bar back onto the ground and gave them a pleasing smile.

"Congratulations young man, you truly exhibit the strength of a hero that's for sure. Here is the key card to your new room." The manager came up to him and said. Then he held up Cardins hand in the air. That exhibited another round of applause from the crowd. The manager handed him the keys to the room. They were labeled room 219.

Before Manager Green could leave though Cardin placed a hand on his shoulder. "Excuse me but could you tell me where the long distance communications room is, I have to make a call?"

"Why of course son, it's right down the hallway over there on your right. Enjoy your stay here at the 4 Heroes Hotel." That was all he said before continuing off to somewhere else.

Following his advice Cardin went to the room he was told about and opened the door. It was a lot smaller than the ones at Beacon. But there was one in the center that was available for use. Cardin quickly sat down.

The screen monitor turned on asking for a name and address. Cardin filled in the specifications for Beacon Academy. He pressed connect.

**Error: Location Not Found**

He pressed it again.

**Error: Location Not Found**

Maybe the servers were down or something. He tried his teams scrolls.

**Error: Location Not Found**

**Error: Location Not Found**

**Error: Location Not Found**

Now Cardin was getting worried. Sure maybe they were out on there own mission and weren't in the range of their CCT tower. Cardin decided to cal, the city's of Vales townhall. It was always open no matter what, and stayed in one place so it was constantly in range of the CCT tower. He dialed the Vale City town hall.

**Error: Location Not Found**

Cardin was now officially panicking. He closed out of the Communications section and went right into the search bar.

He looked up Beacon Academy.

**No Results Found**

What that's not right. Cardin typed in Grimm.

**No Results Found**

How is this possible. Cardin looked up Vale.

**No Results Found**

Seriously where on Remnant was Cardin? That gave him an idea. He typed into the search bar "map of the world." He pressed search.

This time there was a result. A lot of them actually. Cardin clicked on the image bar and chose the cleanest looking map. When Cardin looked he nearly fainted at the sight before him. This map looked nothing like that of Remnants. It had two many continents and seemed much, much larger as well.

Where is Japan located? Cardin types and he was brought to an image of a long thin island near the edge of a continent called Asia. It took a couple moments but then it Cardin. Cardin wasn't on Remnant anymore. He somehow been transported to a completely different one. Cardin needed to lay down. He logged off the terminal and pushed in his chair.

Cardin took the elevator up and came to the door that said 219 on it. It unlocked when Cardin moves the key card in front of the sensors.

Cardin opened the door and turned on the lights to the room. It was an okay room. Not as big as his dorm at Beacon but certainly miles better than the flea and bed bug infested room at Dreary Wood. There was a single window overlooking an expanse of the city and a bed with a tv in front of it.

Cardin didn't care about that. No he walked over to the bed kicking off his shoes and travel Pack on the way and collapsed face down onto the bed.

Cardin rolled over and looked at the ceiling above him. He really was in another world. That probably explained a bunch of things. Why there was no grimm. The special traits or abilities everyone possessed called Quirks. Why Cardin had never heard of any of the locations he'd been to.

How had Cardin gotten here? He thought back to his first memories of waking up on this "Earth". He'd passed out from overusing his semblance in the mine with gravity dust. That was it! It was the Gravity dust. It was the only explanation Cardin could come up with. That the gravity dust had gone so chaotic in the cavern where he had found it in it had somehow opened a black hole or portal that sucked Cardin into it. And the only reason that he had survived the trip was because his semblance had protected him from all of the danger going through.

That meant there was No way home. Cardin was trapped in this strange new world. Cardin couldn't think of any feasible way to get home. Home. What would everyone think back at Beacon.

They would see Cardin not reporting back on his mission and try and contact him. The Professors wouldn't get a response and would resort to sending some out to find Cardin. They obviously wouldn't find him since he was stuck here, wherever here was.

Once that happened they'd mark Cardin MIA or KIA. It caused a knot to form in Cardins stomach and him to feel slightly nauseous. Everyone at beacon would assume he was dead!

How would everyone at the school take the news? Cardins team would probably miss him. What would happen now that they were without a leader? The Professors would be indifferent probably, Cardin wouldn't be surprised if Miss Goodwitch made him into an example, or maybe she'd feel a tiny little bit of guilt for sending him off on the mission.

Cardin figured more people would be happy that he was gone. Like teams RWBY and JNPR. Definitely Jaune and Velvet. It kinda sucked to think that people would be better off now that Cardin wasn't around on Remnant but he didn't care about their opinions. He was Cardin Winchester, his own person, he didn't care what other people thought of him, he didn't need anyone.

Cardins father and him didn't have the most loving of relationships. When he found out there wouldn't be any love lost. Cardins mom had ran away from his dad a long time ago, she would never know what happened to Cardin.

Cardin stopped thinking about Remnant. What was important was what he was gonna do now. Cardin was stranded in a place he had no idea about, with no money, limited supplies and no clear goal in mind.

While it was nice that this world had no grimm in it, it meant that Cardin would never again have to worry about being attacked or mauled by those soulless monstrosities. But the fact was also a double edged sword.

No grimm meant there was no need for Huntsmen and Huntresses. By extension there was no need for Cardin then. He was effectively out of the job as the job did not exist in this world.

In a sick sense of irony it was kind of funny. Cardin had spent his whole life thinking about fighting the creatures of grimm. Cardin always thought the day he would no longer be a huntsman would be because he was killed by them, to injured to fight and forced to retire, or simply was too old to do the work anymore. Cardin would have never thought it was because there were no longer any grimm in the world for him to kill.

Cardin let out a bitter laugh.

All those years of training and preparing had been apparently wasted. Cardin guessed he was supposed to be happy about the fact that there were no grimm around anymore. But it didn't really, Cardin only really felt directionless. He'd never thought about life after being a huntsman because he never expected there to be a life after it.

It left only a gnawing question in front of Cardins mind. What Now? He couldn't be a huntsman anymore. Cardin was still only 17 years old, he still had a lot of years left in him.

The problem was that Cardin didn't know. He sat up from the bed and swung his legs off and onto the ground. When hauling himself up Cardin knocked the remote on the lamp stand next to the bed onto the floor. It hit the floor with a clang and the Tv in the room turned in.

"_Hello I'm Daikaku Miyagi, today had been a hectic day for Musutafu. The city's province had experienced a series of villain attacks during the afternoon. Luckily, thanks to the efforts of Pro Heroes Kamui Woods, Mount Lady, and Death Arm's all of these threats were put down and once again Musutafu is able to sleep safe at night once more. this has been the most prolific day of villian attacks since ten months ago" _A man on the tv was speaking. He wore a blue suit and had a large horn on his head to one side. It looked like he may have had a second one but it was merely a stump as though it had been cut off. In the top right of the screen a series of pictures were being shown. A man with a wooden mask over his face, underneath the picture was a name tag that said Kamui Woods, then a women with a purple mask and blond hair with two horns, she was labeled as Mount Lady, then a man with a chiseled jaw and white hair came up next labeled Death Arms. The last one was a muscular man with blonde hair with two tufts sticking up, he wore a huge smile on his face in giant letters was the name All Might underneath.

"_That's right dear Viewers, Back then ten momth ago All Might, Japan's number 1 Ranked Hero was here in Musutafu. Apparently it was a normal day off for the country's resident top hero but when he saw the heinous crimes being committed by a villain, All Might immediately stepped in to put an end to it. Crime had dropped at an unprecedented rate after his appearance, however the impact he had on the area seems to have finally disapperead and viallians are becoming bolder again" _The newscaster said.

"_The last battle of that day was between an unnamed sludge villain and the Pro Heroes. What made the fight so intense was the fact the villain had taken a kid as a hostage. The heroes were unable to get close enough to rescue the hostage because the teenager was using his own Quirk to try and fight off the Villain. The teenagers strong explosive Quirk caused multiple fires and a lot of collateral damage leaving the Heroes cautious about approaching. It looked to be a stalemate until another kid ran into the frenzy trying to rescue the other teenager. The villain was about to attack the new teenager and surely kill him until All Might showed up. Saving both of the civilians at once and defeating the Villain in a single blow. The following is a first hand recording of the event." _The reporter explained.

The tv screen Cardin was watching changed to a different footage. It had obviously been filmed from someone's scroll. The camera quality was good enough, but it was constantly shaking. A bunch of pro Heroes were being forced back by a moving pile of sludge with eyes. It was hard to tell but Cardin could make out the form of a person struggling against the sludge.

Slowly the Heroes were forced back and it looked like the fight would go nowhere. The person behind the camera suddenly scream "What are you doing!"

Another kid ran past and out of the crowd toward the villain. The kid threw his back pack at the Villian causing them to flinch but that was about it. The villain rose its long dark green hand in the air intent on smashing the boy to paste. It collided with the boy in an explosion of smoke.

Cardin would have thought for sure the kid was dead. But when the debris cleared the kid was fine and standing in front of him was the same man from the picture "All Might". All Might was blocking the strike from the villain and looked to be speaking to the boy who had jumped into the fray.

All Might suddenly turned to the villain. Like lightning All Might grabbed the boy being held hostage ripping him from the grasp of the green sludge.

"Detroit Smash!" All Might yelled. Winding up a punch, he threw forward his fist and blew the sludge man away. The force of the attack was so strong that the person holding the phone was blown backwards and off their feet. The video was still recording and from an angle you could see Mount Lady shield the crowd of civilians.

The video stayed like that for a bit before it was picked up again and turned back to All Might. It suddenly began to rain as All Might raised his fist into the air.

"Holy **** he changed the weather with a punch!" The person recording exclaimed.

The video ended there and the screen cut back to the studio with the horned newscaster.

"_That's all we have on the Heroes operating in the area today. Next up, how can you …" _the reporter continued with some other news but Cardin wasn't paying attention to that.

No Cardin was still stuck thinking of the video of the Pro Hero, the one called All Might. He had been so powerful and amazing. Everyone cheered for him and respected him.

Cardin was in awe. It was like the first time he had seen a Huntsman kill a grimm. He wanted to be like that.

Cardin looked at the calendar above the coffee machine in the corner. Below the various pictures of Pro Heroes was the dates. The Hotel for its sponsorship had specifically circled the date of the U.A. High Entrance Exam.

"_Being a Pro Hero didn't seem to different from being a Huntsman!" _Cardin thought.

* * *

The day Cardin went missing was very unlucky. Since he had been ordered to go on the assignment by Miss Goodwitch as a punishment it wasn't known to the rest of the students at beacon. Things progressed there just like it had originally. With Cinder Falls plans coming to fruition. Beacon fell all the same and Ozpin and Pyrrha both perished. When the relief efforts were organized enough and the leaders took a census of all of the students Cardin Winchester was counted among those MIA and KIA. The New Headmistress Professor Goodwitch was to busy trying to stabilize beacon that the mistake slipped by her. The rest of Remnant believed Cardin Winchester to be dead, all of them ignorant to what had actually happened.

* * *

**Author Notes: Thats a wrap for chapter 2. I'm trying to make this as logical as possible when it comes to Cardins thoughts and actions in the city. He has no idea where he is and his first thought is to get in touch with beacon. Which is why he is in a sort of semi state of denial when certain events happen that contradict the idea that he is still on Remnant. It isn't until he actually looks it up and finds that Beacon and Vale don't exist here that he finally accepts he's in a different world.**

**Cardin would logically have to find a new way of life. The video of All Might surged as a catalyst for the idea of becoming a Pro Hero. Though I feel in this situation Cardin would have eventually chosen to be one anyway.**

**Next chapter is the U.A. Entrance Exam. Comment what you liked and disliked.**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 - Entrance Exam

Cardin spent his time preparing for the U.A. Entrance Exam in a multitude of ways. Cardin first asked the woman at the receptionist desk for help filling out an application to U.A. High. She had been surprised at first but when Manager Green got wind of it he'd been delighted.

"Splendid I knew you were hero material when I first saw you, if you happen to be accepted make sure not to forget about the little guys like us. It would also help if you mentioned the 4 Heroes Hotel to your friends." He had said with a wink at the end.

After that the receptionist was more forthcoming in helping Cardin. She helped Cardin fill in things like secondary education and residency going off Cardins alibi that he was from out of the country. This meant Cardin would need to board at one of U.A.'s small out of state dorm rooms.

The rest of the sign up was easy. Things like sex, age, height and weight were the standard questions. There were more thought based questions too that Cardin found cumbersome. Things like, Why do you think you have what it takes to be a hero? Why are you choosing U.A.? How confident in your abilities? Crap and nonsense like that. Cardin mainly BS'd his way through that. The only one he cared about was the hero costume, which he put some time and effort into.

Once the actual application was sent in and the paperwork part was out of the way Cardin went to work on what he actually felt mattered. Getting in shape. This wasn't to say that Cardin was out of shape, No he was well above the physical level of normal people. The important thing was keeping IN shape. Back at Beacon Cardin had slacked off in most classes preferring to just coast by our have some nerds do it for him. Every class except Combat Class, it was the only one that Cardin had a passion and excitement for. So he made sure to spend everyday training in some way. He needed to keep up with the teachers pets that was team RWBY, and with him purposefully withholding his semblance and chain function of his mace Cardin need to make up for it in other ways.

So in the days leading up to the Entrance Exam Cardin stuck to a strict training schedule. He began the day with a long 10 kilometer run then move onto his core and upper body, 100 squats, 100 sit ups, 100 push ups, 100 pull ups, and 100 bicep curls. Cardin also didn't forget his stretches and protein either.

The days flew by quickly. Cardin spent his time not eating, sleeping, or working out on the internet. Cardin had to become more accustomed to the world he was in. He looked up the basic politics of the country he was in, Japan. As well as other major powers in the world like the United States of America and the European Union. Things were so much more complicated than it was with the kingdoms of remnant.

Cardin also made sure to read up on the history of Quirks and pro Heroes. Making sure to look up the top heroes in the country other than All Might. The other schools as well which made Cardin reaffirm his decision to apply to U.A. after seeing how lackluster they were. All in all Cardin felt he could pass off as from being from this world, called Earth as he found out, without seeming awkward or ignorant.

Cardin also had to come up with an explanation of his "Quirk". Because Cardin had both aura that boosted his abilities and protected him from harm. And he had his semblance, which allowed Cardin to become invulnerable as long as he held his breath at the cost of Cardin becoming heavier. Cardin could probably play it off as it being a super version of his aura or something like that.

The day of the Exam had come by quickly and Cardin was confident he would pass with flying colors. Cardin made sure to thank Manager Green for giving him a place to stay while waiting for the Exam and then Cardin was on his way

Big. No ginormous, ginormous was the correct word to describe U.A.'s campus. It was bigger than beacon that was for sure. The main building was a large building that was in the shape of an H. The walls looked to be completely made out of dark shades windows. The wall surrounding the building looked strong and secure. Only one gate was open.

Every other applicant along with Cardin were walking towards the main building through the gate and walking under the archway to the main building that the signs were saying the beginning of the Exam was at.

Cardin looked around at his "competition", if you could even call these scrawny kids that word. Half of them looked like they would faint if you even looked at them in the wrong way. The best example was the short green haired kid who was shaking uncontrollably looking up at the U.A. building. It became even more pathetic when the kid took a step forward and tripped on his own to feet. Sadly Cardin didn't get to see the kid faceplant head first into the ground. A short girl with curly brown hair placed her hand on his back and he started floating before he made contact with the ground. What kind of Quirk was that? Cardin didn't see how anyone could be a hero with a lame power like that.

There were some other kids walking around to. A blonde kid with black highlights who Cardin thought looked like an idiot and another blonde kid whose face was in a permanent grin or something.

"_Whatever." _Cardin thought. It wasn't like he was going to see any wimps like those at U.A. only the best made into here Cardin. So he knew that were absolutely positively no way another Jaune Arc could happen. He tightened the grip on his mace at the thought of that fraud and weakling.

Cardin only had his mace on him. You could fill out a form to use equipment if you felt it was vital to your success. But the school only let Cardin have _Executioner, _they drew the line at not letting Cardin have his armor.

Cardin followed the signs to a room that was labeled "U.A. High School Hero Course Exam Orientation." Cardin was one of the last people in and so took a seat at the back of the room. Giving Cardin an overview of everyone who was in the room.

The speaker was a man with yellow hair that shot upward and had to be at least a couple feet long. He wore a leather jacket and pants with patches and a pair of glasses that were tinted yellow.

The lights turned on and the Hero began his speech, "For all you examinee listeners tuning in, welcome to my show today! Everybody say Hey!" He yelled with enthusiasm.

Cardin didn't join in with him, and neither did the rest of the people in the room.

"What a refined response." He said shaking with disappointment, "then I'll quickly present to you the rundown on the practical exam! Are you ready? Yeah!" He tried again to get some enthusiasm from the crowd.

Just like before Cardin met his plea with stark indifference and silence permeated the room.

"As it says in the application requirements, you listeners will be conducting ten-minute mock urban battles after this! The yellow haired hero explained, "you can bring whatever you want with you. After the presentation, you'll head to the specified battle center okay? Okay!" He finished in another vain attempt to muster some energy from the crowd.

On the giant screen behind the man a display came up,with different centers appearing all labeled A-G.

Cardin looked down at his Exam ticket.

* * *

**Exam Ticket **

**Examinee No.: 4209**

**Test Location: Battle Center G**

* * *

The man continued on his explanation of the Exam, "three different types of faux villains are stationed in each battle center."

On the screen appeared a digital battle center.

"You earn points for each of them based on their level of difficulty." He explained, "your goal, dear listeners, is to use your Quirks to earn points by immobilizing the faux villains."

A pixelated version of the man appeared on screen and began destroying faux villains and was shown acquiring points.

"Of course, attacking other examines and any other unheroic actions are prohibited!" The Hero warned.

"May I ask a question?" A voice called out after the Hero finished the explanation.

Cardin looked over to where the voice had come from. It was a taller kid with blue hair and glasses. He was raising his hand and standing up. Cardin could tell from his posture and face that the kid was the same kind of teacher's pet that Weiss had been. Cardin groaned on the inside.

"Okay!" The Hero answered.

"On the printout, there are four types of villains. If this is a misprint, the U.A., the most prominent school in Japan, should be ashamed of that foolish mistake. We examinees are here in this place because we wish to be molded into exemplary heroes." He complained, then he pointed behind him to another examinee, "In addition, you over there with the curly hair-."

The kid that Cardin recognized as the nerd who couldn't even walk straight pointed at himself asking if the blue haired kid was asking about him.

"You've been muttering this whole time. It distracting! If you're here on a pleasure trip, then you should leave immediately!" The blue haired kid berated.

The kid in question muttered a quiet apology.

"Okay, Okay, Examinee Number 7111. Thanks for the great message." The Hero on the stage said. And then the screen changed again to a new robotic silhouette.

"The fourth type of Villain is worth zero points." The Hero announced, "That guy's an obstacle, so to speak. There is one in every battle center, an obstacle that will go crazy in narrow spaces. It's not impossible to defeat, but there's no reason to defeat it, either. I recommend that you listeners try to avoid it.

"Thank you very much! Please excuse the interruption!" The blue haired kid said with a bow.

Now Cardin heard murmurs amongst the crowd of examinees.

"Scary."

"I hope I don't encounter it."

"Videogame like."

"That's all from me!" The Hero finished, "Finally, I'll give you listeners a present, our School Motto! The hero Napoleon Bonaparte once said: a true hero is someone no overcomes life's misfortunes. Go beyond. Plus Ultra!"

"Now, everyone, good luck suffering!" The Hero said quietly into the microphone.

The battle centers were just bland city blocks that all Cardin had to say about them. Cardin was just standing around with all the other applicants mace at the ready. They were all waiting behind a huge pair of doors. Cardin muscled his way to the front of the group. Ignoring the protests of those he pushed out of the way.

"Hey watch it pal." A tiny kid with purple ball like hair said to him.

Cardin gave the kid a glare and the purple kid wilted right there and backed off. Cardin was going to take any advantage he could get and being the first one through the door was one of them. So what if it other people's feelings.

"Okay begin." A woman in a white outfit from the top of a tower yelled. "There are no countdowns when you're a Pro Hero so get moving."

Cardin was moving as soon as he heard the word begin. The rest of the group he was with were still surprised, that would allow Cardin to get first blood and an easy first couple of points. Cardin burst past the giant doors and he ran through the deserted city streets.

In Front of Cardin a wall burst open form the building. A pair of mechanical arms appeared in the opening with the number 2 painted on them and the entire robot followed after. It was dark green colored and about three or four times the size of Cardin.

It's red glass eyes focused on Cardin and immediately swung an arm at him. Cardin batted it aside with his mace and jumped up, mace raised over his head. Cardin brought it crashing down on the head of the robot.

After making contact with the thing Cardin could tell it was strong. The armor was probably as strong as that of an Alpha Beowulf so pretty strong. But Cardin wasn't just "pretty strong" he was extremely strong, the head folded in like a tin can before exploding.

He landed on the ground and smirked at the work he had done. But there was no time to gloat. Cardin continued to run down the street looking for more bits to smash. Cardin could brag after this was over.

A three pointer showed up in front of Cardin and after trying to grab him it met a similar fate as its friend. Cardin took another turn down the road to find a lone one pointer.

Cardin continued on his rampage through the streets intent on turning anything that moved into scrap metal.

* * *

**U.A. Viewing Room**

"In this practical exam, the examinees have not been informed of the number of villains or their locations. They have a limited amount of time in a vast area. They have to draw the villains out from there." Principal Nezu explained.

"Information gathering ability to understand the situation before anyone else." Principal Nezu said. A video feed of Mezo Shoji came up.

"Mobility that can be used in many different circumstances." Nezu continued as a video feed of Tenya Iida appeared on the main monitor.

"Discernment to be able to stay calm in any situation." Nezu added, this time Yuga Aoyama appeared.

"And pure combat ability." Nezu exclaimed, Katsuki Bakugo is shown in a pile of robot parts panting.

"Lastly the ruthless efficiency to get the job done." Nezu finished with and Cardin Winchester appeared on the screen ripping apart a 3 pointer.

"These basic abilities are needed to keep the peace in the streets are turned into points in this test." Nezu concluded.

"Doesn't this year's group look promising?" Midnight asked.

In the back corner All Might looked at the small monitor displaying Midoriya. "_You can do this Midoriya my boy, remember what I taught you." _He thought.

* * *

"Well it's time for us to see." Another voice in the room said pushing a button.

A huge explosion went off in the distance as Cardin was ripping his mace out of a robots cranium.

The examinees around Cardin all looked off to where a pillar of smoke was. The ground started shaking and from the foggy blanket emerged a behemoth. It was the zero pointer. It stood a head and shoulder above the nearby buildings.

The examinees near Cardin all started to back off and run away clearly taking the Hero from the Oreimations advice about avoiding it. Cardin twirled the mace in his hand.

"Two minutes left!" The woman announced over the intercom.

While everyone else was running away from the zero pointer Cardin calmly walked toward it. Cardin was certain he had enough points to pass the Exam. But Cardin knew an opportunity when he saw one. This was a chance to demonstrate his power and superiority over everyone else. To put it out of doubt that Cardin was the best and shouldn't be messed with.

As he walked toward the thing he heard something.

"Help me I'm stuck!" A voice cried out.

Cardin looked over to his left in front of him. Someone was trapped underneath the rubble from the zero pointers entrance. It was the purple haired kid from the beginning.

Cardin sighed and jogged over to the kid. With one hand Cardin grabbed and threw the concrete slab pinning the guy down to the side and with the other hand he grabbed the collar of the short kid.

"Thank you, Thank you." The kid said quickly but Cardin wasn't paying attention. Cardin tossed him to the ground waiting for the zero pointer to get closer.

When it did Cardin grinned. He twirled the mace in his hands getting ready to strike.

It turned its robotic head downward to look at Cardin. "Target Acquired, Die!" It rumbled in a monotone voice.

It reared an arm back threw a megaton punch aimed at Cardin. It would surely do a lot of damage but Cardin stayed still and took a deep breath. Cardin felt the familiar feeling of his semblance activating. Instead of crashing into Cardin and sending him flying down the street like it was supposed to, the punch hit Cardin in an explosion of fire and smoke that blasted down the street, but that was it. Cardin himself was no worse for wear as he exhaled in the same spot he began in.

Using the element of surprise Cardin swung his mace in a wide arc and pressed a button. The top head of the mace clicked and was sent flying toward the zero pointers head with a chain following behind it. The projectile impacted and punctured the surface of the robot. Perfect.

Getting into a crouch position Cardin sprang upwards with an aura fueled jump and pressed the button on his mace again to have it start dragging him upwards to the ball of the mace. When Cardin was high enough in the sky he pulled upwards and dislodged the mace head from the robot and it reattached itself to the rest of the mace to compact back into melee form.

Cardin was now directly above it. Cardin raised his mace above his head channeling his aura into his arms and activating the dust mechanism in the _Executioner _allowing it to burst to life with flames. Cardin swung down with all of his might on top of the giant mechanical head. Cardin hit home with what felt like the force of a supernova feeling the machine beneath him bend and explode with the blow until the head was ratcheted of its shoulders bursting into a thousand little pieces.

Cardin landed gracefully in front of the entire crowd of examinees. They were all speechless. As Cardin stood up straight to his full height the headless body of the zero pointer fell down backwards behind Cardin.

The other Examinees looked at him in equal parts shock and awe. Cardin put on a smug grin overlooking them. Now they knew their place, firmly underneath Cardin.

"Times up." The woman's voice echoed over the speakers.

* * *

Cardin after finishing the mock battle returned to the main campus and got changed back into his casual attire. Many of the examinees were talking about their experiences in the mock battles.

"I only got 10 points!"

"That kid broke his arms and legs beating the zero pointer."

"This blonde kid literally destroyed half of the robots in our zone."

"There's no way I passed!"

The murmurs stopped when Cardin walked into the changing room, everyone was watching him out of the corner of their eyes.

"He was awesome in our battle zone."

"I hear he took on the zero pointer all by himself."

"He definitely made it in."

They were all praising and whispering about Cardin. But he could hear them either way. It was nice that Cardin was finally getting the respect he deserved, he felt.

Cardin looked down at the mace in his hands. He looked mainly at the dust fire crystal that was in the head of his mace. The fact it was still there was the thing that surprised Cardin. Normally after using it the way he did against the zero pointer it the dust would have been used up. Instead the crystal was still growing brightly in the center of the flanges of the mace.

Cardin left the Orientation Building with his head held high. It was a stark contrast to the other examinees. Who had all struggled to get more than a single point and were all down in the dumps about their pathetic failure. Half the kids looked dead to the world. Cardin even saw the curly green haired kid walking away with glazed over eyes. He had obviously failed, Cardin didn't need a mind reading semblance/Quirk to know that.

A week passed by with no notification from U.A. to Cardin. But that was expected since the results weren't supposed to come out until today. Cardin was still at the 4 Heroes Hotel as Manager Green had let him stay because the manager liked him enough. Cardin was a hundred percent sure he passed. Even the written exam portion that Cardin had struggled with wasn't worrying him.

He was waiting down in the lobby for the mail to arrive.

The door opened and the mailman walked in with a cart of packages and letters. Cardin ran up to him and immediately went looking for his letter. But he couldn't find it.

A hand tapped Cardin on the shoulder. He turned to see the mailman holding a letter out to him. It had the U.A. seal. "I was told to deliver this one personally. I take it you are Cardin Winchester?" The mail man said.

Cardin nodded and took the letter before running up the stairs to his room floor. He shut and locked the door behind him. Bringing over the letter to his desk Cardin sat down and looked at it for a second before grabbing it and greedily ripping it open.

A small circle fell out. Cardin looked at it, confused about what it was. He touched it. It whirled to life and a blue light emitted from it before a hologram screen appeared above it.

"_I am here as a projection!"_ The face of All Might appeared and screamed on the screen.

"_Why is All Might on my U.A. letter?" _Cardin wondered.

"_Hello Cardin Winchester, it is I All Might here. I am speaking to you as a congratulations for your acceptance to U.A. where I shall be working now." _The projection said.

That was a surprise to Cardin. But a welcome one.

"_You passed the written exam and scored a total of 70 points in the mock battle. Under these circumstances you would have passed the Entrance Exam no problem." _The projection of All Might continued.

"_But there was a hidden caveat in the battle test. The Entrance Exam the other day was not graded only on villain points!" _The projection revealed, _During the Exam you saved a fellow examinee from being crushed. How can a Hero course reject people who save others and do the right thing? Call that lip service? Bring it on! This is a job that requires risking one's life to put that lip service into practice! Rescue points! _

The hologram changed to show a scoreboard with Cardins name on it. Labeled on there was a column with the title "Villain Points" in the box was an 70. But next to it was added a second column to the right. This one labeled rescue points.

"_And they're given by a panel of judges. It's the other basic ability we at U.A. look at! Cardin Winchester, 5 rescue points. With these extra points you move further ahead in the rankings. Congratulations and welcome to U.A. Cardin Winchester." _The projection of All Might finished and Cardin was left staring at the rankings of the entrance Exam.

* * *

**Katsuki Bakugo** **77** **0** **1st**

**Cardin Winchester 70 5 2nd **

**Eijiro Kirishima** **39** **35** **3rd**

**Ochaco Uraraka** **28** **45** **4th**

**Ibara Shiozaki** **36** **32** **5th**

**Itsuka Kendo** **25** **40** **6th**

**Tenya Iida** **52** **9** **7th**

**Izuku Midoriya** **0** **60** **8th**

**Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu 49** **10** **9th**

**Fumikage Tokoyami** **47** **10** **10th**

* * *

2nd place? Cardin lost? How is that possible. To some kid named Bakugo. Cardin was fuming. Cardin had trained almost his entire life he shouldn't have lost.

Cardin could hear his dad's disappointment "_Only second place, really? I thought I raised you better than that." _Cardin took a deep breath to calm his fury. What was important was that he passed and made it into U.A. Cardin told himself. It only worked slightly.

Cardin looked down at the torn up letter again. Class would start in a day. It was just like beacon all over again. Except this time Cardin wouldn't have to worry about leading a team. Which was a relief. Cardin wouldn't be dragged down by anyone, as much as he had liked his team he could admit that they held him back.

Cardin went and lied down in bed. Tomorrow was going to be an important day for him. Cardin would have to establish himself as the top dog. He didn't need to have a bunch of people try to walk all over him.

Cardin closed his eyes. "_Here I come U.A."_

* * *

**U.A. Conference Room**

"The cumulative results for the practical exam are out!" One of the judges said.

"I can't believe he got first place with no rescue points." Midnight commented.

"The faux villains acquire their targets and draw near them. In the second half, as others were slowing down, he used his flashy Quirk to keep bringing them close and then counterattacking. It's the result of his toughness." Cementoss surmised.

"In contrast, there's the 8th place student with zero villain points." Midnight pointed out.

"There have been other examinees who took on the large villain in the past, but it's been a while since I last saw someone blow it away." Cementoss exclaimed.

"But to suffer such a serious injury from his own attack It's like he's a young child whose Quirk just manifested." A judge commented.

Eraserhead leaned against the wall of the conference room where the U.A staff was discussing the results of the Entrance Exam.

"What about the second place student, he not only scored the second highest but took down the large Villian without breaking himself like the 8th place student. This has to be one of the first years that more than one student took down the large Villian." Present Mic pointed out.

"Yes and I'm sure some of the students getting into U.A. through recommendation could have also done the same, I know Todoroki year's group of students looks to be very powerful. That's good right?" Thirteen asked.

"Not necessarily. Them being strong means any mistakes they make will be just as powerful. If they do not develop correctly into Heroes they will potentially spiral down a dangerous and destructive path." Aizawa put his thoughts on the matter.

"What makes you think that Aizawa?" Present Mic asked.

"I can tell by the way they carry themselves and act. Take most of the top ten for example. Most of them suffer from confidence issues or strategic thinking. Student 8 has a clear problem with his Quirk. Student 1 has anger issues and a temper. And I know an ego when I see one when looking at student 2. These flaws must be corrected." Aizawa explained.

"How will we decide who goes into which hero course class?" Snipe asked.

Principal Nezu walked into the room at that moment. "Don't worry I have it all planned out."

"What about you All Might. As the newest teacher to U.A. what do you think of your first batch of students?" Nezu asked the Hero in Question.

All Might sat at the end of one of the large tables still in his yellow suit from the acceptance videos. "They all have their own positives but also their own negatives. Young Bakugo has a powerful Quirk and drive but little restraint and patience. Young Midoriya has the qualities of a hero but not the control or abilities of one, Yet. Young Uraraka has amazing control of her Quirk but little confidence. Young Cardin has a wide set of skills and the confidence to go along with it, however he has little concern for others only himself. But in my opinion these students positives far outweigh their drawbacks. They all have the potential to be excellent Heroes." All Might assessed.

Eraserhead listened to All Mights words. He could see the points that All Might was getting at. But Eraserhead wasn't so optimistic, he would see for himself if these students had what it takes to be heroes. "_We'll see." _Eraserhead thought.

* * *

**Author Notes: That's it for chapter 3. So Cardin has made it into U.A. now. I toyed with the idea of him getting first place but decided against it. One of his few character traits from the show is how he hates being beaten and this is a good chance to put some chemistry in his relationship with his soon to be classmates. **

**It should be noted that the class size will remain the same. Cardin will be in class 1A so he will be replacing one student. Can you guess who it is? Yeah it's Mineta. You could probably tell since Cardin was in the same mock battle as him. Because of this Cardin ended up stealing some of the points Mineta would have gotten. Therefore Mineta did not accumulate enough points to be considered for class 1A. I personally don't hate Mineta as much as most people but when it came down to which student I feel the story would miss the least it was between him and Koda. I may put him as part of class 1B later on but that depends.**

**Next chapter will be focusing on the Quirk Apprehension Test portion as well as Cardins interactions with his new classmates. Possibly the beginning of the Hero course as well. Comment what you liked and disliked. All feedback is appreciated.**


	4. Chapter 4

Class In Session

Cardin woke up the next morning with little fanfare. Just a stupid dream about Forever Fall Forest and Jaune again. Oh how Cardin wished that event had been just a dream.

Cardin looked at the clock on the side of his bed. He still had a couple hours, but the train ride to U.A. would eat up most of it. So Cardin picked himself out of bed and walked over to the bathroom to take shower. His new U.A. uniform was laid out on a chair. It was fairly similar to the one he wore at beacon but the colors were blue, gray and white instead of black, brown and red. He had already worn it once to make sure it actually fit him. The note that came with it said it was custom made for his size.

After a shower Cardin looked at himself in the mirror with the uniform on. Cardin had to admit it looked well on him. Beacons uniform had made him look slim and frail, this U.A. uniform helped accentuate his height and muscle mass. He'd already sent his armor into the school to be worked on for his new hero costume and Cardin already shipped his mace to be stored in a locker. Cardin decided not to make any modifications to it. He didn't need any teachers asking what the fire dust crystal in the center was.

Cardin had to make sure anything from his life on Remnant stayed secret. So from his research on earth there was no equivalent for dust. He'd have to make sure it was looked into.

When Cardin got to U.A. Highschool he once again had to find his way to the classroom. Cardins schedule said that he had been assigned to Class 1A.

Cardin finally found the room. It had a huge door large enough for Cardin to walk through even if he was twice as tall. The outside had a giant red 1A painted on the side.

Two kids were standing in the doorway. A green curly haired kid and a girl with brown hair. They were both wearing U.A. uniforms so that meant they were in Cardins class.

Cardin heard bits of their conversation as he got closer.

"Passed, Just like Present Mic said." The girl was saying. "Of course you did! Your punch was amazing."

The boy obviously had never talked to a girl once in his life since he was busy scratching his head and fumbling all over himself. It reminded Cardin of Jauney Boy when he was in the locker room during Beacons initiation hitting on a bunch of girls. But to be fair Jaune had been far more coordinated.

"Ahem!" Cardin coughed from behind the two.

The girl whirled around and looked up to meet his eyes, the boy did the same.

"Oh hello, are you in the Hero course too?" She said cheerfully.

Cardin scowled at her. "Yes." He grunted and walked into the room not caring if he shoved the green haired kid out of the way.

Cardin looked into the room to see the rest of his "classmates". They turned to look at the 6'7" Titian that had entered the room.

Cardin responded to them with a cold look. He surveyed them all making a note of who he determined as weak. Some of them didn't meet his eyes, they were instantly moved into the weak column. The notable ones who didn't back down from his stare were the spiky blonde haired kid with his own scowl, the kid with red and white hair and a burn on his face and the bird headed kid.

Cardin looked over to his assigned seat. It was in front of this long black haired girl with a ponytail. The seat in front of him was empty meaning it was either the green haired wimp or the annoying girl.

Cardin sat down in his seat.

"_He seems mean." _Mina, Momo, Toru and Koda all thought.

"Hello there, My name is Tenya Iida from Somei Private Academy. It is a pleasure to meet you, I hope we can get along for our time together. And you are?" Iida introduced himself.

Cardin already knew this type. It would be best to answer their question otherwise they would complain to hell and back.

"Cardin Winchester." Cardin answered.

Before anything else was said the green haired kid screamed.

Cardin looked to the front of the classroom. Where a man in black clothes and a bunch of white scarfs was standing.

"Okay, It took you eight seconds before you were quiet. Time is limited. You kids are not rational enough." He mumbled.

"A teacher." someone whispered.

So this was Cardins Homeroom teacher he didn't look like much. Not to mention he seemed like a stickler for the rules.

"I'm your Homeroom teacher, Shota Aizawa. Nice to meet you." Aizawa said apathetically.

The room mumbled softly and surprised about the revelation.

"This is kind of sudden, but put this one and go out onto the field.

"_What's this about?" _Cardin thought. He was confused but got up from the seat and followed the rest of his classmates.

Cardins track suit was kind of tight p. That's all he had to say about it. It hugged against his body showing off his abs and muscles. The legs and arms were also a bit short. They weren't custom made for Cardins body type. Everyone else's fit though, of course none of them were 6'7" either which probably made it easier. Cardin easily towered over the rest of his classmates.

One of the girls whistled at Cardin but he ignored it.

Aizawa came out onto the field. "Good everyone's ready." He said, "today we're gonna be having a Quirk Apprehension Test."

"A Quirk Apprehension Test!" The class screamed Cardin included.

"What about the entrance ceremony? The orientation?" The brown haired girl who Cardin learned was named Uraraka said.

"If you're going to become a hero, you don't have time for such leisurely events." Aizawa answered not even turning to look at her.

"U.A. selling point is how unrestricted it's school traditions are. That's also how the teachers run their classes." Aizawa explained, "you kids have been doing these since junior high, too, Right? Physical fitness tests where you weren't allowed to use your Quirks. The country still uses the averages taken from students not using their Quirks. It's not rational." He lamented.

Cardin technically didn't partake in any of these assessments but he was sure gonna act like he did.

"Well the Ministry of Education is procrastinating." Aizawa complained, "Bakugo, you finished at the top of the practical exam, right? In junior high, what was your best result for the soft ball throw?"

"67 meters." Bakugo the spiky blonde haired kid answered.

"Then, try doing it with your Quirk." Ordered Aizawa.

Bakugo went to the center of the circle and was handed a baseball.

"You can do whatever you want as long as you stay in the circle." Aizawa instructed, "Hurry up. Give it all you've got."

Bakugo stretched his arms and wound up. "Die." He yelled. What looked like a normal throw however ended when a giant explosion emanated from his hand sending the ball rocketing into the sky.

Cardin saw how powerful of a Quirk it was. But at the same time he wasn't worried.

"Know your own maximum first." Aizawa spoke aloud, "that is the most rational way to form the foundation of a hero." He held up the phone that displayed the distance of the throw which read 705.2 meters.

The rest of the class gasped in shock at the strength and distance of the throw.

"What's this? It looks fun!" The pink girl said.

"Finally a chance to not have to hold back." Cardin said grinning.

"We can use our Quirks as much as we want! As expected from the Hero course!" The black haired boy said.

"It looks fun, "huh?" Aizawa said condescendingly, "you have three years to become a hero. Will you have an attitude like that the whole time?" He asked.

Aizawa suddenly got a smile on his face that was at all promising. Cardin didn't like it.

"All right. Whoever comes in last place in all eight tests will be judged to have no potential and will be punished with expulsion." Aizawa threatened.

"Huh" everyone went.

Aizawa gave a look at all the students looking at each one individually until they looked away. When he looked at Cardin, Cardin stared right back with a confident smirk on his face showing he wasn't worried in the slightest about losing.

"We're free to do what we want about the circumstances of our students. Welcome to U.A.'s hero course!" Aizawa said.

"The last place will be expelled! But it's the first day of school!" Uraraka pleaded, "no, even if it was t the first day of school, this is unfair!"

"Natural disasters, big accidents, and selfish villains. Calamities whose time and place can't be predicted. Japan is covered with unfairness. Hero's are the ones who reverse those situations. If you wanted to go talk with your friends at Mickey D'Souza after school, too bad. For the next three years, U.A. will do all it can to give you one hardship after another. Go beyond. Plus ultra. Overcome it with al, you've got." Aizawa challenged.

"_This is too serious to be hazing." _Iida thought.

"_This isn't all I've got." _Bakugo thought.

"_I'll make sure to establish my dominance here and now." _Thought Cardin.

"All right, demonstrations over. The real thing starts now." Aizawa called out.

The first test was a 50 meter dash. Cardin wasn't the best when it came to speed but without his armor on he could at least go at a decent clip.

Iida and the frog girl were the first up. Cardin finally saw their Quirks Iida had one specifically suited for speed. And ran a time of 3.04 seconds. Cardin knew he couldn't beat that which was frustrating. The frog girl had a time 5.58 seconds.

When Cardin got up to the line he channeled his aura into his legs.

"On your mark," the machine said, "Go!"

Cardin exploded out of his sprinter's stance and raced to the end. He crossed the finish line moments later.

"4.01 seconds" the machine sounded off.

Good enough for second place it seemed. Cardin could live with that.

The second test was grip strength. Cardin looked at the machine in his hand. Then he looked at the octopus armed kid who had gotten 540 kilograms. Cardin channeled the aura into his hands. He squeezed down fully intent on crushing the thing in his hands. It was tough but Cardin eventually heard the whine of metal bending until a sharp CRACK was heard.

Everyone in the room looked at Cardin who had the pieces of the machine in his hand. He put on a smug look at the group who had been congratulating the multi-armed kid. "Better luck next time octi." Cardin said in a fake friendly tone.

Aizawa looked at Cardin, "_Strength seems to be his forte. What was his Quirk again?" _He thought while writing down Cardin for first place.

The third test was the standing long jump. Cardin didn't grab first this time he just barely cleared the sand pit.

The fourth test was repeated side steps. The kid with the tail dominated that while Cardin finished middle of the pack.

The fifth test was the soft ball throw. Cardin stood at the end of the circle and ran forward throwing the ball forward with as much force as he could muster. Cardin looked over to Aizawa.

"700 meters." He said.

What sucked was the fact that Cardin got shown up by the fucking annoying girl who used her Quirk to literally get a distance of infinity.

The green haired kid called Midoriya went up.

"It doesn't look good for Midoriya if he continues like this." Iida said next to Cardin.

"Huh? Of course not. He's a quirkless small fry, you know." Bakugo pointed out.

"Quirkless?!" Iida gasped, "Are you not aware of what he did in the Entrance Exam?"

"Huh" Bakugo grunted.

"What are you talking about. Are you telling me that wimp actually has power?" Cardin exclaimed.

"Hey Izukus not a wimp." Uraraka deafened.

"Really? could have fooled me." Cardin replied.

Izuku winded up an Cardin saw a glow of red lines travel up his arms. But it suddenly disappeared when he threw the ball. It landed 46 meters away.

"Haha, yup that's some power all right." Cardin laughed.

"I was definitely trying to use it right now.." Izuku mumbled.

"I erased your Quirk." Cardin turned to Aizawa whose eyes were glowing red and hair was standing up, "the entrance exam was definitely not rational enough. Even a kid like you was accepted." He said.

"You erased my Quirk." Izuku gasped, "those goggles… I see! You can erase other people's Quirks with your Quirk just by looking at them. The Erasure Hero: EraserHead!"

"_Who?" _Cardin thought. He had never heard of him before when doing his research on Japan.

"From what I can tell, you can't control your Quirk, can you? Do you intend to become incapacitated again and have someone save you?" Eraser head asked.

"Th-That's not my intention-" Izuku began. He was grabbed by the floating scarves around Aizawas neck. "Whatever your intention, I'm saying that's what those around you will be forced to do. In the past, there was an oppressively passionate hero who saved over a thousand people by himself and created a legend. Even if you have the same reckless valor, you'll just be decked and turn into a useless doll after saving one person. Izuku Midoriya. With your power, you can't become a hero." Aizawa said harshly.

He dropped Izuku, "I've returned your Quirk. You have two turns for the ball throw. Hurry up and get it over with.

Cardin knew it was the end for Izuku. There was no way he could continue, Izuku was weak just like Jaune and he'd be thrown out just like Jaune should have been.

Just when Cardin thought he saw the light go out in Izuku's eyes it suddenly came back to life. "_What is he thinking."_ Cardin thought.

Izuku stepped forward and prepared to throw. Cardin saw the look in his eyes, Midoriya was gonna use his Quirk in hopes that he could power through the next tests. It wouldn't work though. The ball was leaving his hand yet nothing was happening? At the last second the ball exploded from his hand Midoriya's finger specifically. It blasted through the Sky with a sonic boom gaining speed and distance as it went. Cardin knew it was all physical strength not some explosion too.

"705.3 meters." Aizawa said with a surprised look on his face.

...

"Mr. Aizawa… I can still move!" Izuku said holding a broken finger.

Cardin was shocked. No that wasn't the right word Cardin was furious. Somehow this scrawny little twerp of a kid had beaten HIM in terms of strength. It was like Jaune all over again. Cardin clenched his fist tightly. It seemed he wasn't the only one.

"Hey! Tell me what's going on, Deku, you bastard! What the?" Before Bakugo could finish what he was saying as he ran towards Midoriya he was grabbed by the scarves around Aizawas neck and quickly restrained.

"These clothes are hard!" Bakugo grunted struggling against them

"They're weapons for capture made of carbon fiber woven together with metal wire made of a special alloy." Aizawa explained unfazed by Bakugo's struggle. "Jeez Don't keep making me use my Quirk over and over. I have dry eye." He released Bakugo "Get back to the tests."

The next test went by quickly and quietly. They were simply a sit and reach which Cardin was average at. Then it was sit ups. Cardin had been confident he would win, but the mismatched hair kid somehow beat Cardin. The last one was a long distance run where Cardin beat everyone without a speed or mobility Quirk.

After that they all convened back at the softball throw field. "Okay, I'll quickly tell you the results. The total is simply the marks you, got from each test. It's a waste of time to explain verbally, so I'll show you the results all at once. The person with the lowest total score will be expelled." Aizawa said.

The screen on Aizawas phone expanded into hologram displaying the results of the test. They read.

* * *

**Cardin Winchester 1st**

**Momo Yaoyorozu 2nd**

**Shoto Todoroki 3rd**

**Katsuki Bakugo 4th**

**Tenya Iida 5th**

**Fumikage Tokoyami 6th**

**Mezo Shoji** **7th**

**Mashirao Ojiro 8th**

**Eijiro Kirishima 9th**

**Mina Ashido 10th**

**Ochaco Uraraka** **11th**

**Koji Koda** **12th**

**Rikido Sato 13th**

**Tsuyu Asui 14th**

**Yuga Aoyama 15th**

**Hanta Sero 16th**

**Denki Kaminari 17th**

**Kyoka Jiro 18th**

**Toru Hagakure 19th**

**Izuku Midoriya 20th**

* * *

Cardin smirked. Even if Izuku had by some fluke, and it was a fluke, beaten Cardin in one round it still wasn't enough to dig him out of the hole. . Just like it should, Izuku would be expelled.

"By the way, I was lying about the expulsion. It was a rational deception to draw out the upper limits of your Quirks." Aizawa suddenly announced.

Cardins mood dropped. Of course Cardin couldn't have one thing could he. Of course the weakling would still be here. Had the Gods cursed Cardin to spend his entire life with idiots?

"There are handouts with the curriculum and such in the classroom so when you get back, look over them. Midoriya Have the old lady fix you in the nurse's office. Tomorrow will be packed with even more rigorous tests. Prepare yourself." Aizawa said.

* * *

**POV Midoriya **

"_I got through this for now but there was too much that I couldn't do. I'm starting from last place. I have a lot to learn from here on out in order to get closer to what I dream of becoming!"_ Midoriya thought to himself.

Midoriya looked over to Cardin who was taunting Bakugo over losing.

"Looks like your the one whose and extra." Cardin laughed. Bakugo was chomping at the bit, until he saw Izuku looking at him. Bakugo's face became blank as though he was thinking of something.

Midoriya bent his finger out of reflex and it flared up in pain. "Fu.." Midoriya nearly swore but caught himself. He needed to get the nurse just like Mr. Aizawa said.

**Later **

Midoriya was walking to the train half dead from Recovery Girls Quirk until a hand slapped on his shoulder.

Midoriya turned to see that it was Iida. "Iida!" He said surprised.

"Is your finger healed?" Iida asked.

"Yeah thanks to Recovery Girl." Midoriya showed him his bandaged up finger. He cringed at the memory. "_I can't just keep getting help from others. I have to hurry up and learn to control my power." _Midoriya thought to himself.

"I was really taken in by what Mr. Aizawa. I even thought "this is the best of the best" and such. I didn't think a teacher would encourage us with a lie." Iida admitted.

"_I thought Iida was scary but he just earnest." _Midoriya thought. He'd been really wrong on his first impression of him. Which didn't happen often in Midoriya's opinion.

"Hey! You two!" A voice called out. Iida and Midoriya turned to see Uraraka running toward him. "Going to the station? Wait for me!"

"Uraraka!" Midoriya called our surprised. He wasn't good with girls. Well, people in general, but especially girls.

"You're the infinity girl." Iida greeted her.

"I'm Ochaco Uraraka." She introduced herself. "Um, you're Tenya Iida, and you're Deku Midoriya, Right?"

"Deku!" Midoriya yelped at the nickname.

"Huh?" Uraraka looked confused. "But during the fitness test, the boy named Bakugo said "Deku, You Bastard. Right?" She said.

"Uh… my real name is Izuku, but D-Deku is what Kacchan calls me to make fun of me…" Midoriya said feeling slightly ashamed and awkward.

"An insult?" Iida asked in a suspicious tone.

"Oh is that right?" Uraraka said in an awkward tone too, feeling embarrassed about possibly offending Midoriya. "Sorry."

"But "Deku" sounds like the Japanese word for "You can do it!" So I kinda like it." Uraraka said with a fist.

"I'm Deku!" Midoriya practically screamed. Turning red while doing so.

"Midoriya?" Iida said in a bewildered voice. "You're accepting it too easily! Wasn't that an insult?"

"It's like the Copernican Revolution." Midoriya said covering his face with his hands.

As they walked down the street Midoriya thought to himself, "_there are so many things I can't do. I have to work hard and do my best. But, All Might,"_ Midoriya looked to his side at Iida and Uraraka. "_I can at least be happy that I have friends, right?"_

* * *

**POV Cardin **

Cardin felt like was gonna puke watching that whole scene from around the corner. He was heading to the station too but there was no way he'd be hanging out with tweedle dee and tweedle dum. U.A. had as part of the policy for international students set Cardin up with an apartment in the area. It just so happened to be in the area that these three were staying too. Just Cardins luck!

The first day at school hadn't been that bad. Cardin was sure he could survive the coming years. Cardin had even rectified the mistake of the Entrance Exam by proving he was leagues better than the rest of his classmates.

"_Celebrating again over something that was expected of you, you never change so you Cardin? This is why you so weak, you're always content with where you are." _Cardin flinched at the old insult.

"_No I am strong." _Cardin told himself. He would prove them all wrong.

The inside of the apartment he stayed at was bland. It had white walls and a grey ceiling with a carpeted floor except for the tiled kitchen area. Cardin hadn't done much decorating. Only the bare essentials along with things like a map of the world, a picture or two of some pro Heroes and a workout bench. To the normal person it would look like a normal human was living here. Not someone from a different civilization.

Cardin dropped off his bag and immediately went over to the computer. He'd made it a habit of trying to scrounge up information on his situation but so far Cardin had come up with nothing.

Cardin tried to think out of the box this time.

**Earth History and Legends of Quirks**

The only results that came up were just the founding of heroes in general and the baby of light. Cardin scroll further down the search page.

**Destro's Rebellion **

**Yakuza Empire**

**Villain Overlord**

**Hero Hunter Strikes Again**

These sites and posts had no information whatsoever on what Cardin was looking for.

He spent the next hour searching for more but to no avail. So Cardin finally called it quits and decided to head to bed.

* * *

The Courses and schedule at U.A. wasn't too different from Beacon Cardin observed. In the morning they had English class with the yellow haired hero from the entrance exam. He introduced himself as Present Mic and began the lessons. It had been scary at first when he'd been asked about the language. Apparently the place Cardin claimed he was from spoke English so he was worried he cover would be blown. But it turns out English was the same dead language students at Beacon were taught by Professor Oobleck. So Cardin was able to maintain his cover.

Mathematics was with a Hero named Ectoplasm. Cardin didn't like math and therefore didn't like the course.

Modern literature was with a teacher who looked to be a giant gray brick. He introduced himself as Cementoss.

Modern Hero Art History was taught by a Women Hero. Cardin could admit she was hot however after spending time with Professor Goodwitch the appeal of teachers that most kids fantasized about wasn't that appealing anymore. She was referred to as Midnight.

After that class all students at U.A. had their lunch breaks. The food was top notch. Definitely better than Beacons slop. It was also more crowded than Beacon as well. Every table was filled to the brim because the school had to accommodate the Hero courses as well as the Business and General Education courses. Cardin piled on the food to his plate. He'd always eaten a lot for the fuel needed to move his massive body around and the energy needed to train as a huntsman.

The only problem was finding a place to sit. Cardin looked around the cafeteria. The question was where did he "want" to sit? Cardin knew absolutely no one outside of class 1A. And of those students Cardin did know he wasn't too enthusiastic about spending time with them.

"Hey Cardin over here!" Someone shouted out to Cardin.

Cardin turned to see the black haired kid, Sero, waving him over to a table with the rest of class 1A at it.

_"Better the demons you know I guess." _Cardin thought walking over to the group of heroes in training.

The only spot open was one next to the pink girl and the red haired kid.

Cardin sat down with his lunch in front of him.

"Wow that's a large plate of food, how do you eat all of that?" The pink girl that Cardin remembered was named Mina asked.

"Oh please that's nothing, A real man could eat twice as much." the red head kid said placing a fist to his chest. The kid preceded to stuff an entire chicken leg into his mouth of sharp teeth.

"_First they try to get you to let your guard down." _The voice of Cardins Father echoed in Cardins head.

"Hey Cardin, we were on the topic of Quirks before you came over here. Kirishima was explaining his Hardening Quirk. What's yours?" Mina asked.

"_Then they size you up. Test to see if your able to be walked all over." _The voice reminded. They were trying to see if Cardin would reveal his strength. Find his weakness! Cardin could see it behind their fake friendly faces.

"Why would I tell you that?" Cardin answered politely but he put a layer of aggressiveness underneath to hint at how stupid he found the question.

Mina just looked back in surprise not expecting such a hostile response. She must have been surprised that Cardin has seen through her fake friendliness and smiles.

"I-I was just curious, that's all. Why don't you want to share what it is?"

"_If they keep poking poke back and put them on the back foot. Make them realize they can't control you." _The voice commanded. "What about you? What's your Quirk?" Cardin countered.

Ashido was sputtering at the soddun question but Cardin didn't give her a chance to respond though.

"_When their off balance find a weakness and attack it! Make them feel like their the ones who are beneath you." _Cardins father voice instructed. Cardin looked at Mina and saw the two yellow horns protruding from her pink hair.

Cardin reached out and grabbed one with his hand. She flinched at that. "Is it the reason you have these weird horns or your skin is pink?" Cardin asked with a false curious tone, giving tug of the horn at the end.

Mina was wide eyed and stuttering not believing what Cardin had just done. Cardin released his hold on the horn and she got up and ran out of the lunch room. Cardin chuckled slightly, she should know better than thinking Cardin would fall for such a trick. Though it was more convincing than most.

The rest of the table was silent. Needing to Take a couple of seconds to understand what happened. The first one to respond was Kirishima. "Hey that was totally uncalled for why would you do that!" He shot.

"Yeah that wasn't very mean and totally wrong, not cool." The yellow haired kid Kaminari said.

"You can't just grab someone's horns or features like that!" The green haired girl Tsuyu said.

"_If your criticized about your actions act like you've done nothing wrong. Leave if you don't have a chance of winning, but make sure your opponents feel as though they are the ones running away from you." _The voice recited. "Seriously what's the big deal? she was asking about my Quirk and I asked about her Quirk." Cardin shrugged.

Before they could continue Cardin looked down at his scroll. "Whatever, I need to head to class anyway?" Cardin got up and emptied his tray leaving the cafeteria altogether.

Cardin returned to Class 1As homeroom first and sat down at his desk and took out his scroll. Cardin found out a way to connect it to the internet so it still functioned like "phone" to everyone else.

Slowly the rest of the Hero course made their way into the class. Some of them avoided Cardins eyes while others Denki, Kirishima, Sero and Tsuyu gave him disapproving stares. Mina was the last one in the room and didn't look in Cardins direction, instead sitting down and keeping gaze on her desk.

As class was about to start a noise sounded from the hallway.

"I am…" a loud voice shouted.

Everyone turned their heads toward the entrance.

"... coming through the door like a normal person." All Might burst through the door in a dramatic fashion.

Everyone gasped at the sight of the legendary number one hero.

"It's All Might!"

"It's really him!"

"Wow, he actually is a teacher at U.A."

"That's a costume from the Silver Age, isn't it?"

All Might walked up to the front desk.

"His style and presence, it's giving me goosebumps."

All Might put his hands in his waist and addressed the class, "I teach Hero Basic Training. It's a subject where you train in different ways to learn the basics of being a hero. You'll take the most units on his subject."

"Let's get right into it! This is what we'll do today-" All Might pulled out a Card with the word "Battle" engraved on it, "Combat Training!

"Combat" Bakugo grinned

"Training" Izuku gulped.

Cardin smiled inwardly. This was his kind of class all ready.

All Might went on, "And to go with that are these!" He pointed to the wall on the side of the room.

The wall made a hissing sound as from the gray stripes on the wall emerged a bunch of number boxes.

"Costumes made based on your Quirk registrations and requests you sent in before the school year started." All Might explained. "After you change, gather in Ground Beta!"

"Yes, Sir!" The class responded enthusiastically.

* * *

**Ground Beta**

"They say the clothes make the man, young men and ladies." All Might said as Cardin and the others emerged.

"Be fully aware, From now on, You are heroes!"

All Might looked at the group assembled before him. "That's great, everyone. You all look cool!"

Cardin agreed as he looked at himself in the reflection of a nearby window. Cardin had turned in his old armor to be improved and modified. Cardin didn't do the same with his mace since Cardin didn't want them to go poking around the dust crystal in the center.

Now Cardins armor was stronger and better. It had been reinforced with earth's strongest materials, but at the same time hadn't become heavier or bulkier. Cardin had changed the color now. Instead of the dull gray armor with his family crest in the center colored dull gold it was now sleek black with a nice sheen to it. The gold grime going around the edges had been redone along with the Family crest making the colors pop more. Cardin looked the part of a black and gold knight with his mace in his hand.

There had been only one thing Cardin had added. He looked at the thin three pronged crown in his hand **(think Sauron from the Lord of the Rings crown)**. The center spike was the largest and it was the same metallic black as his new armor. It didn't really do anything special physically, but psychologically it made Cardin look more intimidating. Cardin slipped it on his head and twirled his mace in his hand. The look fit him.

Cardin looked behind him hearing the sound of footsteps. It was Midoriya in his hero costume. Cardin didn't know if you could call it a costume though, it looked like a giant green rabbit onesie! Cardin chuckled at the thought. But turned his attention back to All Might.

"Now shall we begin, You Zygotes?" All Might shouted, "Now it's time for combat training!"

"Sir!" Iida said from his armored attire raised his hand Cardin recognizing him by his voice. "This battle center from the entrance exam, so will we be conducting urban battles again?"

"No we're going to move ahead two steps!" All Might held out two fingers. While it may seem like most of the time, fighting villains takes place outside, this is only because it is easier for the media to cover. If you actually take a look at the numbers and statistics, vile villains appear indoors at a much higher rate. Imprisonment, house arrest, backroom deals- in this society filled with heroes, truly intelligent and crafty villains will hide themselves within the shadows!"

"For this class, you will be split into villains and heroes and fight two on two indoor battles." All Might declared.

Cardin thought about it. It did make sense, but back in Beacon Cardin was being taught to fight grimm mindless beasts out in the open. So Cardin have that much experience with indoor fights and intelligent opponents. Cardin wasn't bad either but people with experience like Pyrrha who had fought in multiple tournaments had a distinct advantage over him.

"Without basic training?" Tsuyu queried.

"This is a real battle to understand the basics!" All Might reasoned. "However, the key this time is that there's no robot you can just beat up on."

"How will wins and losses be determined?" Yaoyorozu asked.

"Can we beat them up anyway?" Bakugo growled.

"Will the punishment be expulsion like with Mr. Aizawa?" Uraraka asked worry evident in her voice.

"How shall we be split up?" Iida raised his hand.

"Isn't this cape crazy?" The yellow haired kid Yuga asked.

"_Was this class full of nerds and goody two shoes?" _Cardin wondered.

"I'll answer all of your questions!" All Might answered awkwardly. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny booklet. "Now listen here. The situation is that the villains have hidden a nuclear weapon somewhere in their hideout. The hero's are trying to dispose of the threat. So the heroes either need to catch the villains or get the nuclear weapon back in the allotted time. Meanwhile the villains need to protect their nuclear weapon for the whole time or catch the heroes."

All Might pulled a box out of nowhere with the word "Lots" written on in black sharpie. "Teams and opponents will be determined by drawing lots!"

"There being decided so haphazardly?" Iida exclaimed.

"Pros often have to create makeshift teams with heroes from other agencies, so maybe that's why?" Midoriya theorized.

"I see the discernment to look ahead so far… please excuse my rudeness!" Iida apologized while bowing.

Cardin didn't know what to think of this system. At beacon they were assigned teams which allowed a student to form partnerships and plans before hand. Cardin had liked leading his team and calling the shots since he knew what each one of his teammates were cable of. But it wasn't unheard of for Huntsmen and Huntresses to go solo. Cardin would probably have to carry whatever scrub got paired with him. Cardin would think about whether he went solo or not for when he actually graduated.

"It's fine, let's do this quickly!" All Might. He began drawing out names. "Midoriya and Uraraka, Shoji and Todoroki, Iida and Bakugo, Ashido and Yuga, Sado and Koda, Kaminari and Jiro, Tsuyu and Tokoyami, Ojiro and Tora, Sero and Kirishima, and Cardin and Yaoyorozu."

Cardin looked over to his temporary partner. She didn't look all that strong so it looked like he'd be doing the heavy lifting. She met his gaze with a blank stare and a nod. But Cardin saw a smidge of disappointment, so she didn't like him, not like Cardin cared he really didn't need her.

"The first teams to fight will be…" All Might reaches into two boxes one labeled villains and one labeled heroes. "These guys, Midoriya and Uraraka vs Iida and Bakugo. Team A will be the heroes, and team D will be the villains. Everyone else make there way to the monitoring room."

"Yes sir."

As Cardin was walking he saw Mid-Deku standing by himself looking down. Cardin gave him a shove as he walked by. "Good look there "Deku." Cardin making sure to draw out the name.

When they were in the observatory room which was a dark room with multiple screens on it that were the direct feed of cameras in the faux building, All Might began laying out instructions. "In five minutes, the hero team will break in, and the battle will start! Young Iida, Young Bakugo, learn to think from the perspective of the villains. This is pretty close to a real battle. Go all out. Don't be afraid to get hurt. If things go to far, I will stop it."

Cardin looked at the screens in mild interest. The villains were still setting up and talking but that was it. Iida was just randomly moving stuff around the room which was odd. Cardin took a look around the room. He was more off to the side of the crowd. A gap had formed between him and the other students. It seemed they hadn't taken to kindly to Cardins actions, that didn't matter though they didn't know the full story anyway.

Mina was the farthest away. The Kirishima, Sero, and Kaminari standing near her forming a makeshift shield almost.

"Now, let's start the indoor person to person combat training with teams A and D Begin!" All Might said into his microphone before turning to a dress the students present in the room with him. "Okay, everyone, you all should think as well."

Then they were off. Izuku and Uraraka enter through a window undetected and began stalking around the building searching for the entrance to the main room of the building. Stealthy looking around corners and glancing down hallways Midoriya leading with Uraraka following.

When they turned around a corner they were suddenly ambushed by Bakugo. The room gasped when they saw him rush out of the blind spot. He charged in with an explosive fist that Midoriya avoided, tackling Uraraka to the ground.

They weren't talking loud but they were talking about something. Both Bakugo and Midoriya sizing each other up.

"A surprise attack from the begging!" Jiro exclaimed.

"Bakugo, that's cheating! A surprise attack isn't manly at all!" Kirshama said disgusted.

"A surprise attack is a strategy, too. They're in the middle of a real life battle right now." All Might said.

"Midoriya avoided it!" Mina cheered and showing some emotion.

"Really? He was grazed and his Suit isn't holding up, I guess it was a strong as it looked." Cardin snorted.

"There goes Bakugo!" Kaminari explained.

Bakugo rushes in for a powerful onslaught. Cardin figured the match was gonna end here. While not a great as Cardin, he could admit that Bakugo was on the stronger side and would wipe the floor with these two.

Bakugo swung his arm back for a devastating right hook as Midoriya came to meet him. But there was no blood or explosion. No two arms locked around Bakugo's strike halting his momentum and neutralizing the attack. Midoriya had bafflingly shown some decent skill and swung his legs around and swinging Bakugo down on the ground. He landed with a thud heard in the comm room.

The room was silent, Cardin himself confused at what he was seeing. The words of Midoriya could be picked up on the mics "Kacchan, you usually start with a big right swing. How much do you think I've been watching you?" The next couple of sentences were too quiet to be heard. Then it picked up again. "My "Deku" isn't always going to mean "useless"! Kacchan, my "Deku" means "you can do it!" He screamed.

Bakugo just stood there seething on the camera until he looked back at Izuku. "Deku… even though you're scared… that's what I hate about you!" Bakugo screamed and prepared to charge again. But a call from Iida stopped him and Bakugo yelled into the mic, then hung up.

"What was Bakugo saying?" Can't tell with just the cameras and the horrible sound quality?" Kirishima asked allowed.

"He talking to his partner over the small wireless radio. You can bring that lus the building's floor plan, and this is capture tape!" All Might held up a bundle of white tape. "Once you wrap this around your opponent, it shows that you've captured them."

"The time limit is set at 15 minutes, and the heroes don't know where the nuclear weapon is located, right?" Mina asked.

"That is correct young Ashido."

"Then the heroes are clearly at a disadvantage here!" Mina exclaimed.

"Heroes should be able to turn the tables on Whatever predicament they're in. Besides, didn't Mr. Aizawa tell you, too? You know-." He raised his fist. "Here we go…"

"Plus Ultra!" The class shouted. Cardin however didn't join in. He was focused on the monitor screen displaying the battle.

"Monsieur, Bakugo is!" Yuga began but didn't need to finish as the rest of the class refocused their extension to the screen where Bakugo had launched himself forward with an explosion and used the momentum to create a powerful kick a Midoriya's head, who black it with his forearms.

Uraraka sprinted away to somewhere else, Cardin didn't care where he was to busy watching the main event.

Cardin had seen it before anyone else but Midoriya was trying to use the capture tape on Bakugo. Bakugo seeing this launched a right fist that forced Midoriya to dodge and abandon the attempt.

"That guys amazing!" Sato said.

"He's not even using his Quirk fighting against the guy who finished first in the exam!" Sero pointed out.

"And that's why he will lose."

The rest of the class turned to Cardin who had spoken. "What do you mean Cardin? Midoriya has the advantage right now, doesn't he?"

"Of course he doesn't without his Quirk, Dekus practically useless. Any damage hes doing is superficial at best and he's the one on the defensive."

As if on cue before anyone could say anything Midoriya turned and ran with Bakugo on his trail.

They chased after each other in a deadly game of cat and mouse. It reminded Cardin of the times he would be set up to soar against one of the lower tier students. Them running for their lives powerless to Cardin as he pummeled them into the arena floor.

It made Cardin smile. Someone saw it, "What got you smiling like that Cardin?" Cardin turned to see Kirishima looking at him giving him a suspicious look.

"Oh nothing, just thinking about how I'm gonna destroy my opponents in my match." Cardin said with a laugh of mirth.

"I don't think that's the attitude to have for being a hero?" Yaoyorozu said having heard the conversation.

"Well I guess it's a good thing you aren't the one who decides who gets to be a hero." Cardin replied sarcasm dripping from his mouth.

"Maybe so, but that still doesn't mean everyone shouldn't have decent morals when it comes to other people. Things like knowing personal boundaries and not saying things that might be offensive toward someone." Yaoyorozu said.

So they were still hung up about that cafeteria incident huh? "I don't see the big deal. Most people shouldn't be so soft or thin skinned. If their hurt by such mere words maybe they aren't cut out for being a hero. A top hero wouldn't be fazed by something like that."

"Well a top hero wouldn't put someone down either. A hero gets to the top by letting their actions speak for themselves, they don't climb the ladder by knocking other people off of it!" Surprisingly it was Mina who jumped in.

"Yeah, that's how a real man acts." Kirishima said putting a hand on Minas shoulder.

Instead of responding Cardin just tsked and turned his attention back to the monitor. "_Everyone here is just weak."_

While Cardin hadn't been paying attention Uraraka had snuck into the main room with Iida. They'd noticed each other and Cardin saw that Iida had gotten rid of all the materials in the room to prevent Uraraka from using her Quirk to its ultimate effectiveness.

But Cardins attention was drawn away from there when he saw that Bakugo and Izuku had engaged once again. Bakugo held out his new arm gauntlet, pointing it at Midoriya and was speaking to Midoriya, but there were no audio receptors so Cardin didn't know what was being said.

Bakugo pulled the pin on it and it glowed red before shooting out a large explosion that raced towards Midoriya. The Bakst was strong enough to shake the fake building and destroy a large portion of it.

"This is supposed to be a class!" Kaminari yelled.

All Might was saying something into the mic that connected into the wireless devices.

Bakugo approached a Midoriya that was on the ground frozen in fear.

During the confusion on the other screen Uraraka ran at the unprepared Iida who was busy trying to contact Bakugo. She leapt into the air floating over him and toward the weapon.

"She can float herself now?" Jiro said aloud.

She hid her abilities to get the drop on someone. That was the first smart thing Cardin had seen. It seemed even a blind squirrel could eventually find a nut.

The move itself was for naught as Iida burst forward faster than Uraraka grabbing the faux weapon and moving it out of Uraraka's range. It seemed Urarakas Quirk was useless once again.

"Teacher you should stop the fight. Bakugo is acting really crazy! That could have killed him" A concerned Kirishima said.

"No.." All Might said bring the mic to his mouth, "Young Bakugo, the next time you use that, I'll stop the fight and your team will lose. To attack on such a large scale inside is inviting the destruction of the very stronghold you seek to protect. It's a foolish plan for both heroes and villains! You will lose a lot of points for it."

Bakugo roared in frustration before charging forward to initiate a close combat fight. When Midoriya went for a counter attack though Bakugo fires an explosion preemptively pushing him above and behind Midoriya shooting him in the back with a third explosion.

"What was that just know?" Kirishima asked.

"He doesn't look like the type to think, but he's more subtle than I expected." The class turned to the kid half covered in ice Shoto Todoroki. Cardin had hardly ever heard him speak.

"What do you mean?" Kirishima asked.

"He changed his course in a blast that doubled as a smoke screen then did it again immediately." Shoto deduced.

"Getting in a clean hit while fighting against inertia requires fine lateral adjustments to the power of the explosions." Yaoyorozu surmised.

Cardin mind immediately went to Yang Xiao Long and her similar style of fighting. Maybe Bakugo didn't have had much brute strength but he was definitely a lot more agile and Cardin could now see he was surely a lot smarter than that dumb blonde.

Before Midoriya could recover Bakugo knocked the wind out of him with a side punch grabbing him by the arm and using his explosions to add more power into Bakugos swing ending it in a one handed overhead slam.

"This is a lynching."

"He could just use the capture tape he doesn't have to do that."

"Those are not the actions of a hero."

Midoriya got up and immediately started crawling away.

"He's running away?" Mina said worried.

"That's not something a man should do, but he's got no other choice… but somethings off… why?" Kirishima said.

Cardin felt something wasn't right either. Why was Midoriya running over to a window with nowhere to run?

They exchanged words before charging this time Midoriya running full speed to meet Bakugo.

"I said, this looks bad, Sir!" Kirishima screamed to All Might as both Midoriya's arm glowed and Bakugo's hands lit up.

All Might looked to say something before stopping after hearing something in his communication device.

Midoriya changed the angle of his punch instead firing it upward toward the ceiling as Bakugo's blow connected. The rust was a huge up draft of air and power that literally ripped the ceiling and floors above it apart.

Urarakas used this distraction to grab a pillar with her Quirk and send rubble flying toward Iida who was forced to cover himself from the attack.

While he was doing this Uraraka leapt over the giant hole in the floor with her Quirk and landed on the bomb.

Midoriya was still standing one arm purple from the use of his Quirk and the other burnt from Bakugos attack. "Heroes Team … Wins" All Might announced. Midoriya fell to the floor.

* * *

"What the heck? The losers are practically uninjured, and the winners are on the ground…" Kaminari gasped.

"They lost the battle, but won the war, huh? Tokoyami said sagely.

All Might had to leave to make sure that Midoriya was all right and retrieve the two teams. Leaving Cardin and the rest of the class by themselves. Most of them just murmured and such about the battle.

All Might returned back with the teams minus Izuku ho was at the nurses office. He gathered in front of the students before speaking. "Well, even if I say that, the MVP for this battle was Young Iida!"

"It's not either of the winners, Ochaco or Midoriya?" Asked Tsuyu.

"Hmm, well … why is that? Can anyone tell me why?" All Might asked the class.

"Yes, Mr. All Might. This is because Iida adapted the most to the context of the training. From watching the match, it appears Bakugo acted on his own because of an obviously personal grudge. And as All Might Said earlier, it is foolish to launch a large scale attack indoors. In the same way, taking into consideration the damage he received, Midoriya's plan was also rash. As for Uraraka. She let her guard down mid battle, and her final attack was too reckless. If she treated the paper mache as a real weapon, she would not have been able to do something that was so dangerous. However Iida had prepared for his opponents arrival and assumed it would be a fight over the weapon, which made him late in responding to the final attack. The hero team only won because they took advantage of the fact that this was a training exercise. They were practically breaking the rules.

"_Oof, harsh." _Cardin thought.

"Well, Young Iida also has parts of him that could be more relaxed, but that was basically correct, good job." All Might admitted.

"We should always start with the basics to develop depth of learning. We must strive to devote ourselves wholeheartedly. Otherwise we cannot become top heroes."

"_Blah Blah Blah Perfect Huntsmen, Blah Blah Blah perfect Heroes. This is Weiss all over again with her holier than thou attitude. And I'm stuck partnering with her!" _Cardin thought.

"Alright everyone, let's change locations and start the second match. Tackle this training after thinking about what we just discussed." All Might said. He reached into the two boxes again and pulled out the names of the next two teams. "Yaoyorozu and Winchester as the villains vs Kirishima and Sero as the heroes!" He announced.

Cardin looked at the pair in question and smirked. This would be fun.

* * *

Cardin and Yaoyorozu both stood in the center of the room with the nuclear weapon in it.

Yaoyorozu was the first one to break the silence. "Okay Cardin I have plan, what we need to do-."

"Save it for later teachers pet, I have my own way of doing things." Cardin interrupted. Cardin was a team leader at beacon there was no way he would be ordered around by a girl who was a year younger than him. "I'm gonna go down there and take them both down myself."

Cardin started walking toward the door to the other levels. Momo called after him though. "Wait, we need to work together if we want to beat them!"

"That's where you're wrong, you see I don't need your help. So you can just sit back and watch." Cardin answered not even bothering to look back or break stride.

Cardin made it through the door and down the hall before his ear piece went on. "_I don't care about your stupid pride Cardin, a strategy is needed to be a successful pro hero. You're just looking for a chance to get back at Sero and Kirishima for what they said about you earlier." _Momo said through the communications device.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just showing some people there place and who they can and can't mess with." Cardin said through the communication device.

"_That's not what we're here for, it's to learn how to be pro Heroes not thugs." _Momo almost screamed through the ear piece.

"I guess it's a good thing we're the villains for the exercise then." Cardin said before simply muting the channel she was on in his ear piece. The nerve of that girl! Who did she think she was to boss around the Cardin Winchester?

Cardin pulled a page out of Bakugos book and hid around the corner on the main path to the weapons room.

Soon enough Cardin heard the sounds of footsteps echoing down one of the hallways. The pair was obviously trying to be quiet but they weren't made for stealth so Cardin heard them coming towards him.

Cardin tensed his muscles and gripped his mace, finger hovering over the fire dust mechanism. Cardin couldn't use it though or he would be getting the same scolding Bakugo did. No, that option was to destructive for the building he was supposed to be trying to protect. It would look like Cardin would have to do it the old fashion way.

When the cautious steps finally came close enough Cardin sprung into action. Slipping around the corner and using the momentum of his body he swung the _Executioner _is a wide horizontal arc targeted at Kirishima. Sero jumped out of the way but Kirishima wasn't so spry. Cardin felt the hit connect with a heavy impact.

Cardin looked down the red haired kid expecting to see him killed over. Imagine Cardins surprise seeing two rock like arms blocking Cardins surprise blow.

Kirishima was the one to smirk this time and threw the blow to the side and threw his own haymaker at Cardin.

Cardin leaned back and the fist went safely in front of Cardins face. He backed up using another swing of his mace to put some distance between him and the attacker. Cardin hadn't exactly known his teammates Quirks and cursed himself for overlooking something so obviously. Cardin had just expected to force them to submit no matter their Quirks. He hadn't accounted for a Quirk which would shield the pair from Cardins strikes.

Sero had recovered and shot a thing of tape at Cardin. Cardin side stepped it and grabbed it. Sero barely had any time to look surprised as he was suddenly pulled toward Cardin and into a viscous head but that cracked Seros helmet.

When he fell to the ground Cardin sent a kick into his midsection sending him into a wall. Before he could think to do something though a fist came crashing into Cardins jaw sending spittle flying out.

Backpedaling Cardin used his weapon and his forearms to weather the storm of rock hard blows hammering down on him. Waiting it out, Cardin seized the opportunity when it presented itself, Kirishima stepping forward to much and over extending himself. That mistake was paid for in a kick to the shin by Cardin that caused Kirishima to stumble forward then receive a mace swing to his armored back which introduced him to the ground with great intimacy.

Cardin used this quick lull in the fight to catch his breath. His aura had take a decent amount of damage. Cardin had needed to learn to gauge his aura with pout his scroll in combat in order to not raise suspicion. It was also the reason Cardin didn't reveal his Quirk/Semblance. By Cardins estimation he was running at about 75% full.

Cardin hadn't felt the need to use his Semblance yet and decided he would only use it if he needed to. Cardin also decided to forgo using the chain of his mace too. Better keep some surprises in store for later on in the year. Cardin looked down at his classmates who were both picking themselves open. Cardin was winning the physical battle right now, time to work on the mental one.

"Had enough yet, I barely even felt those love taps." Cardin taunted. He took a menacing step forward, "Because I'm just getting started."

"Like hell we are! You're going down with that ego of yours Cardin." Kirishima yelled back. He and Sero both charged forward coming from both Cardins left and his right, preventing him from hitting them both with a single swing. Cardin went for what he thought was the bigger threat and took a two handed swing and brought it down toward Kirishima. It knocked him off course but his Quirk mitigated most of the damage. Before Cardin made another swing a stream of tape pulled his arm back. It gave Kirishima a wide open target. One he didn't waste, forgoing a blow that would be defended by Cardins armor he delivered a strong uppercut that snapped Cardins mouth together.

With Cardins weapon and arm being restricted by Sero who was using all his strength to keep it pulled back Cardin was at a disadvantage in the melee with Kirishima. With every blow Cardin blocked another made it through his guard, slowly but surely sapping Cardins aura. It was time for a change of plan.

"Yaoyorozu do it NOW! Cardin shouted after blocking a punch. Hearing what Cardin had just said made Kirishima jump back in alarm looking around for a trap wildly. "_Suckers."_ Cardin thought. Cardin dropped his mace and grabbed the tape holding his arm. While the two of Cardins opponents were distracted he pulled the tape again in a repeat of last time. Only this time Sero found a knee to his gut. Ripping the tape off him, Cardin hurled Sero down the hallway with a roar. Aero hit the wall hard sending a crack up to the ceiling.

Cardin looked at Kirishima in front of him and Sero who was collapsed against the wall. "It's useless, you guys can't beat me. Just give up now and I'll make it a quick and merciful beating." Cardin said confidently hoping to demoralize them into surrendering.

Kirishima looked at Sero and they stared at each other for a second. Sero sprung to his feet and down the hallway. Leaving Cardin and Kirishima alone in the hallway.

"Looks like your partner got scared and left you all alone Kirishima!" Cardin taunted.

"So what, I'll be fighting you by myself then." Kirishima said back.

"I know, How spineless." Cardin sneered.

"What? How is that spineless." Kirishima asked confused.

"Because, sucide is the easy way out." Cardin taunted.

They both charged at each other. Cardin and Kirishima hammering away at each other both of them neglecting defense in order to create as much damage as possible. Cardin new after the first second though he was on the wrong end of it. This kid was a lot more used to using his fists to fight than Cardin and it was showing. Shoving him away Cardin made a mad dash toward his weapon on the ground right where Cardin had dropped it to catch Sero by surprise.

Kirishima tackled Cardin from behind to stop him from reaching it on time. They both wrestled on the ground fighting to be the first one up. Kirishima after hitting in between a kink in Cardins armor got up first. He grabbed the mace first and now had the advantage. He would have if Cardin had been after the mace.

Cardin wrapped his large arms around Kirishima. Lifting him up off the ground and holding him close to his chest making it so Kirishima couldn't use his arm or legs. Cardin began squeezing. Kirishima let out a painful scream before Cardin felt him tense up and become rock hard. Kirishima focused insistently on getting loose struggling but Cardin wouldn't budge. He changed to head put Cardin repeatedly but Cardin stayed firm. Cardin guessed he was at about 50 % of the way down in his aura, Cardin could weather this. Eventually it died down and Kirishima switched back to normal apparently unable to hold his Quirk any longer. Cardin saw this as an opportunity to squeeze harder.

Kirishima let out a pained cry again. His communications device turned on again with All Mights voice filtering through it. "_Young Winchester that's enough, you have capture tape."_

Cardin didn't stop not quite ready to stop. He still needed to make this guy pay for trying to belittle Cardin. "_Winchester now!" _All Might commanded.

"_Fine!" _Cardin groaned. He loosened his grip. But suddenly tape wrapped around him and Kirishima. "What!" Cardin yelled. He immediately tried to let go and tear it off but Kirishima was the one this time to grab Cardin and hold him in place.

"Sero now!" Kirishima yelled. More tape wrapped around the two of them until they were both restrained. Cardin was still struggling to break free but it was useless against the combined effort of Kirishima and the strong restraining tape.

The feeling of something being wrapped around his legs caught Cardins attention. He looked down to see the capture tape wrapped around him. It took him a couple seconds to actually comprehend what had actually happened.

Cardin ... had ... lost?

Cardin was in so much shock that he didn't even resist when Sero cut him and Kirishima out of the tape wad they'd become.

"Looks like the top hero just fell off the ladder!" Sero joked as he pulled Kirishima to his feet.

That broke Cardin out of his stupor and white hot anger shot through him. Cardin growled ready to make him eat those words. "_Mr. Winchester remember you have been captured." _All Might voice chimes in through the wireless communications device.

Cardin paused and weighed his options. Logic won out and he halted.

"Come let's go there's only 4 minutes till the timer goes off." Kirishima said as he rushed toward the place Yaoyorozu was Sero right behind him.

Cardin was now left by himself to stew in his defeat. How had he been so stupid as to not realize Sero might come back. Cardin hadn't considered the possibility that it was a ruse and that he had run away because he was genuinely afraid. After all, most of the students at Beacon always ran away and never showed their faces to Cardin if Cardin didn't want to see them. Them showing courage was simply something Cardin wasn't conditioned to seeing.

"_Once again I'm reminded of how weak you are Cardin, must you always disappoint me?" _The voice in Cardins head reprimanded.

3 minutes later over the intercom All Might announced that the Hero team had one with 15 seconds to spare.

* * *

**Monitoring Room **

"Now who can tell me who the MVP of this match was and why?" All Might asked the class when they had gathered back in the room.

"It was Sero. He was the one too both disarm Cardin and formulated a plan to capture him. Also he was instrumental in getting to the bomb in Time. Kirishima did play his part really well though." Iida summarized.

"Well said Young Iida. Now can someone point out some reasons for why the villains team may have lost." All Might asked.

"During the match it was pretty obvious the villains had a lot of trouble working together. With one of them completely cutting off contact with their partners communication channel. This put them at a disadvantage in maneuvering themselves and formulating strategies." Said Tsuyu.

"Cardin, while he did hold his own got captured leaving it as a two v one for the heroes and villains. Making it almost impossible for Yaoyorozu to win." Jiro said.

"What! Are you trying to imply it's my fault? I held them off for practically the entire time limit and nearly won too. It's not my fault my partner couldn't hold out for a fraction of the time!" Cardin shouted angrily.

"Cardin control your tone. I know your frustrated about the result of your match but please be respectful." All Might warned. Cardin cooled himself.

"He also was more focused on causing damage to the enemies instead of the objective itself which distracted him from Seros sneak attack." Mina added.

Cardin clenched his fists and hissed.

"These are all points with merit to them. Let us chose the next round…" All Might rambled. Cardin didn't hear him though. Rather Cardin had him tuned out in favor of the haze of red that was Cardins mind at the moment.

The rest of exercised went by without event Cardin only really paying attention when he saw what the Shoto kid had done with his powerful Quirk. But for the most part Cardin boiled in anger and resentment for the rest of the day and most of the class. As soon as the bell rang Cardin left early not bothering to stick around.

How dare they insulted he wasn't hero material! Cardin was the most qualified to be one! "_Learn to be Pro Heroes not Thugs." _They we're just soft that was all. The only reason Cardin had lost was because of his deadweight teammate and the fact he couldn't use his fire dust in the match. Yeah, if Cardin had used that, his Semblance and his chain mace it wouldn't have been close Cardin reasoned. But the doubt was still there no matter how hard he tried to quash it. He tried to ignore the feeling in order to make it go away, but Cardin would Remember this day, that was for sure.

* * *

**Authors Notes: that's it for this chapter, this took a lot longer than expected that was for sure. When doing this chapter I actually had a lot of ideas come to me making me change some scenes around. Mainly the cafeteria scene to parallel to the RWBY scene with Velvet. **

**I wanted to add some more character and context to Cardins actions which is why I added the voice of his father this chapter to give insight to his childhood and his life growing up. Where he's been trained by his father to be "Strong" and how he father constantly berated Cardin for his failures. It's one of the headcanon reasons I have for him being a bully, where he gets he validation from those weaker than himself.**

**For his hero costume the simplest way I can explain it is that it's his old armor but shiner and black and gold instead of grey and dull gold. The crown is similar to Sauron form the Lord of the rings but only with three front spikes.**

**So this chapter Cardinals been humbled slightly and it will play a large roll in the next chapter(s) aka the USJ Arc. I hope it doesn't take this long to finish that chapter though. As always comment what you liked or disliked.**


	5. Chapter 5

Unforseen

The day after Cardins Humiliating defeat was what Cardin could only describe as "abosoule fucking shit". Cardin had rushed back to his dorm in order to be spared the laughter that would be hurled at him when classes ended. The entire time he could hear the voice of his father screaming at him, where with every word it got louder "_You lost! How could you lose Cardin? A Winchester never loses! You're no son of mine." _

Cardin had been so pissed he'd forgone his daily searches on the internet about finding out what happened to him. Instead Cardin had gone right to bed. It didn't get any better from there as Cardin just had more unpleasant nightmares about Forever Fall and Father.

* * *

Cardin was running through Forever Fall again instead this time it was nighttime. Cardin couldn't see it but there was something chasing after him, the sound of trees falling down and growling could be heard behind him. Cardin didn't turn around and kept sprinting.

Cardin broke out of the clearing of the woods but was forced to stop when Cardin realized that it was a giant cliff side. He looked down the side and at the bottom was a pit of darkness. The blackness continued so far down the pit Cardin couldn't tell where it ended. The sounds of destruction coming towards Cardin caused him to pry his eyes away from the hole and back to the tree line of the woods he'd come out of. Cardin could see trees falling as whatever was following drew closer. As this happened the persistent roar also grew closer. Cardins heart hammered in his ears watching the unknown monster approach.

He took a fearful step back. Cardins foot slipped on a rock and he fell back abruptly stumbling backward down into the pit. He screamed out as he fell into the chasm of darkness, yet no sound came forth. Cardin reached his hand out toward the quickly retreating light above him that just continued and continued two shrink from his sight. Until is finally vanished and Cardin was left falling through the void. Cardin felt his chest get heavy as he tried to breath but no air would go into his lungs causing Cardin to panic. He clamped his eyes shut and continued falling.

He hit something with a thud. Cardin opened his eyes again and was assaulted with light. A figure was standing in front of Cardin but was distorted by the light shining in front of them. It cooled till Cardin could see who was standing triumphantly in front of him. Jaune Arc posed before Cardin arm up victoriously on foot on the dead corpse of an Ursa Major in front of him. All of a sudden the sound that had seemed to be muted came back again and the cheers of a crowd came to Cardins ears. "Jaune … Jaune … Jaune!" They shouted. Cardin watched this unfold as he laid there on his knees behind Jaune.

A hand clamped on Cardins shoulder and he looked up, the visage of Cardins father was there but wasn't looking down at Cardin, instead looking ahead at Jaune. "Why couldn't you be more like him Cardin, a son I could be proud of." Cardin father said, voice dripping with disappointment and resentment, "instead I'm stuck with a failure like you!" Now Cardins Father turned to look at his son. Cardin stiffened and backed away from the face. It's eyes were pure black and looked right through Cardin. The scene began to blur and wash away till Cardin was standing in a dark hallway.

Cardin turned his head to the entrance of the hallway toward where the light was coming from. A figure stood at the entrance their outline dark and blurred. Cardin couldn't make out any features but somehow he just knew who the person was. Their voice reached his ears "your turning out just like him, I can't stand to watch you grow up into that."

* * *

Cardin woke up in a coast of thick sweat. He looked at the clock, it was still early in the morning, there wasn't enough time to go back to bed even if he could fall back asleep which Cardin doubt he could. So Cardin got changed and ready early tak8gn and extra long shower as well.

Yesterday's embarrassment had been bad. Not the worst though, it was really only fourth on the list. But just thinking about it made Cardin remember those other times which made Cardin even more pissed off. The spar against Pyrrha was there at 3rd, as was the Forever Fall Incident at second, but the first worst memory in particular was playing in Cardins mind.

* * *

**Flashback**

Cardin was walking through the hallways with his team after Professor Goodwitchs class. It had been an enjoyable day capped off its Cardin crushing some weak nerds. It was so good that Cardin was actually beginning to put the memory of Forever Fall behind him. Speaking of which, Jauney Boy hadn't mentioned anything about what happened to the staff, which meant he was keeping up his end of the deal. Cardin had contemplated simply turning in Jaune and be done with him. But Cardin had squashed the thought of doing that pretty quickly. Cardin may not have respected Jaune, but Cardin respected when he owed something.

And as much as Cardin hated to admit it a small, very small, part of him acknowledged that Cardin owed not to turn in Jaune. That didn't mean Cardin still despised every aspect of Jaunes being. Jaune would just get exposed later on by someone who wasn't Cardin. Either way Cardin was finally getting out of the slump he was in.

Russel and Sky turned the corner down to the dormitory before Cardin and Dove did. However before Cardin could turn the corner Russel flew past right in front of Cardin on to the tile floor of the hallway, Sky followed not too long after. Stepping out from around the corner was a girl dressed in expensive clothes and a beret, a giant of a man in green armor that actually managed to eclipse Cardin in size and a tanned red haired faunus. Team CFVY, Cardin sneered.

"My bad there, I was just taking out the trash someone left in the hallway and didn't realize the difference between the two." The leader of the team Coco said tilting her sunglasses down, "Team CRDL." She spat.

Cardin stepped forward while Sky and Russel both got to their feet behind him. As leader it was Cardins duty to defend his teammates. "Team CFVY, to what do we owe the honor of meeting beacons third most well known team?" Cardin said with faux politeness knowing a jab at there popularity would rile the eccentric team leader.

Coco frowned at the comment but otherwise didn't lose her cool and responded with her own thinly veiled polite tone, "nothing just wanted to have a "talk" about your treatment of one of my teammates."

Cardin was no fool about the connotations that the word "talk" implied. Neither did his teammates who Cardin could hear unsheathing their weapons as a precaution. Cardin kept his nose high and put on condescending smile while looking down at the leader of the opposing team making the most of the size difference in order to appear as big and intimidating as possible, "My my if I didn't know better I'd say you were threatening me Coco."

"Maybe I am, if you don't start leaving Velvet alone that is, but if you stop it right now I'll maybe let you chumps off with a warning." Coco growled.

Cardins temper flared. She was trying to threaten him, Cardin Winchester. He had crushed people for lesser offenses. She even had the gall to insinuate that Cardin would lose. Cardin face morphed into one of sadistic glee "Speaking of the Rabbit? Where's the bunny at? I had some things I wanted to talk to her about, but it looks like she ran away, but that's bunny's are supposed to do so I guess I'm not too surprised. Ran away to hide behind her team I guess, how weak."

"That's it, now you're asking for it!" Coco yelled as her two teammates ran forward at Cardin and his teammates. Cardin blocked a strike from the red haired one, Fox, Meanwhile Dove leapt at Coco and Russel and Sky engaged the one in green armor Yatsuhashi.

Cardin focused his attention back to Fox who was sending a barrage of slices at Cardin with his wrist blades. Cardin was forced to go on the defensive blocking the sharp blades coming his way with the hilt of _Executioner _and his forearms.

A robotic female voice buzzed to life, "weapon is mace designed for bludgeoning and the wielder possesses the strength necessary to use it effectively."

Cardin tried smash the Faunus into pieces but he was a crafty fellow expertly avoiding his blows. How was that possibly Cardin thought that this guy was blind?

Cardin jumped back as Sky went flying into the wall on his side, cracking it and sky slumped down the wall his aura flickering before shattering. Cardin grimaced, he needed to end this quickly to help his team in order to give them a chance.

"Opponent has backed up 3 feet." The female voice reported. Cardin suddenly realized why Fox could predict his movements he had one of those ADA systems. Cardin smirked, now he knew how to beat him.

Cardin feinted a heavy side swing. Waiting for Fox to duck underneath it, Fox took the bait and crouched down and let it fly harmlessly above him. But Fox clearly wasn't ready for the foot to the face that knocked him onto his back.

Cardin swaggered over to his downed form reaching down and grabbing the ADA system from Fox's ear and crushing it. As Fox was getting to his feet he never saw the mace coming towards him and he was battered into the wall, limp when he hit the ground.

Cardin didn't stick around to celebrate instead rushing over to help Russel who was being held up with one hand by Yatsuhashi. Cardin barreled into him like a freight train causing him to drop Russel who just groaned when he hit the ground and didn't get up.

Yatsuhashi and Cardin both broke apart before clashing weapons. Cardin gritted his teeth, it seemed this guy was one of the few people in the school that was on Cardins level of strength. Which mean that Cardin couldn't go through the normal route of pummeling him into the ground.

Cardin and Yatsuhashi trades blow after blow with each other a tremor going up Cardins arm as every swing connected. A sudden step back by Yatsuhashi left a surprised Cardin open to a swing at his midsection and Cardin was now the one flying into a wall.

"_Screw this I'll use it, this dolt won't realize what hit him." _Cardin thought. Rolling to his feet Cardin charged forward giving the appearance he was ready to engage in another close quarters brawl. However Yatsuhashi didn't expect Cardin to swing his mace forward from so far away, nor was he prepared for the head of the mace to detach itself from the mace and crash directly into his surprised face. Using this moment of surprise Cardin spear tackled Yatsuhashi into the was behind him. Ramming him into the wall add dropping him to the floor with a knee to the face for could measure.

Cardin let out a sigh of relief when Yatsuhashi didn't immediately get up. It was short lived when Cardin felt searing pain arc across his body. He fell to his knees panting and turned his head to where the pain had come from.

Coco stood across from Cardin,Dove at her feet holding his crotch in a crumpled up form. She didn't look that worse for wear simply a cut or two on her clothes and her sunglasses were cracked.

"Looks like you actually have a shred of skill in ya. To bad it appears your team doesn't." She said smugly. A pair of arms wrapped around Cardins shoulders putting him in a full Nelson.

Cardin struggled against the hold but it was no use Yatsuhashi. Coco walked up to the restrained Cardin. "This if for Velvet." She stated before socking Cardin across the face. Normally he would have used his semblance to avoid this and he tried to, but it was at this time his aura gave out. Robbing Cardin the ability to activate his semblance.

Coco gave Cardin another shot to the jaw and this time Cardin spat up blood from the force of it. Then another, and another, and another, and another...

Cardin soon was no longer struggling against the arms holding onto him but instead was now sagging like a sack of bricks hanging from a string.

Coco was about to deliver another haymaker when a voice screamed out "Coco Stop".

The fist stopped an inch in front of Cardins face and he could feel the wind hit his bleeding face.

All heads turned to the where the voice had come from. Cardins vision was blurry so he couldn't really make out who it was, all he could tell was that they were a woman and had two shapes sticking out of that head.

"Velvet! What are you doing here?" Coco screamed surprise coloring voice letting Cardin know this wasn't part of their plan.

"Me? What are you doing here." Velvet said accusingly.

"I'm just teaching these punks a lesson about messing with my teammates, and how they won't be making the same mistake twice." Coco defended.

"No you're not. You're using your power to put down those who oppose you, you are being no better than them. It enforces the idea that Might makes right not the peaceful solution that we should all strive for." Velvet countered seemingly pleading with Coco.

"So you're just gonna let these assholes keep doing things to you, you're stronger than them." Coco retorted gesturing to Cardin who had been dropped and was on his knees on the floor.

"You're right I am stronger than them and that's why I don't stoop down their level. I know they're "scum" but I know you aren't and think you're better than this." Velvet said disappointedly.

Coco huffed, "fine Velvet we'll do it your way, but.." she turned back to Cardin who was on the ground "remember this, you're lucky Velvet showed up."

She and Yatsuhashi turned and left down the hallway grabbing Fox on the way out.

When they were gone Velvet rushed over to help Cardin to his face, he was too weak to refuse the help.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

Cardin ignored her question and instead asked his own, "Why?"

Velvet looked at Cardin confused, "Why what?"

"Why'd you step in and help?" Cardin asked. The _even after what happened, _went unsaid.

"Don't get me wrong Cardin, it's not because I don't want you to get beaten up. It just as I said I'm above that, and fighting with violence will just breed more violence. I aspire to be a huntress that inspires people to reach peaceful solutions and protect everyone. Even if that means standing up for you too." Velvet said unsure.

Cardin just avoided her eyes and leaned against the wall for support. Seeing this Velvet turned and left.

When Velvet was far away down the hallway Cardin finally relaxed and let of a pained groan. His face killed, and it was starting to swell on one side. Cardin looked over to his teammates. Russel and Dove were just getting up while Sky was still slumped against the wall.

Cardin walked over to him and carefully slung Sky over his shoulder wincing while doing so. "Come on, let's get back to the dorms." Cardins said to his two other teammates.

They nodded silently and walked forward, both with their own form of limps in their stride. Cardin stalked after them in sour mood to the dorm rooms.

* * *

That reminder just made Cardin sick. If there was somehow something worse than having to be saved by Jaune Arc of all people then that was it. First having lost, what Cardin considere 1, then someone stepping into protect him. Then that same person having the gall to insinuate Cardin needed their help and was weaker than them, all the while that person being Velvet Scarlatina!

Cardin ground his teeth together as he chewed on his breakfast, all set to make his way to U.A.

When Cardin was walking to the main entrance of the school he noticed something. A large crowd of people were standing outside of the security gates with boom sticks and cameras. The media, just as annoying here as they were a beacon at seemed. Though they didn't seem to have the dignity that vale reporters like Lisa Lavender had.

Cardin snuck off to the side of the crowd hoping to escape their notice and make it inside before having to be annoyed by a bunch of questions. Not only that but Cardin didn't want them to look into his background. As far as U.A. knew Cardin was from America where he received his education at an unknown obscure school called beacon, if people started digging around into Cardins past, Well he was under no illusion how flimsy it was. Luckily the reporters seemed to be very interested in the front of the gate not the student who was approaching from the back side.

When Cardin was about to enter the mob of people he held his head high to avoid eye contact with people and used his superior bulk and mass to push his way through the crowd.

"Hey!"

"Watch it!"

"Rude!"

Things were going along as smoothly as they could until a female reporter noticed his U.A. uniform on. "Hey your students aren't you?" She asked holding here microphone towards Cardin.

Cardin responded by quickening his pace. The problem was that that seemed to confirm her suspicions, "What's your name? What's All Might like? What is it like attending such a prestigious academy like U.A.?"

Cardin just ignored her and kept walking. "Hey I'm talking to you know?" She shouted after Cardin, reaching out and grabbing his arm. Almost to be immediately thrown to the ground when she was pulled forward by it.

By the time she was back on her feet Cardin was already through the entrance and out of reach. "Rude." She muttered.

Cardin wasn't the first one to arrive to Homeroom. Some of the other students were already in the room forming their own little clusters and clicks. Cardin ignored them and sat down in his seat bring out his scroll-phone and pretended to be using it to avoid having to talk to anyone. While doing this Cardin looked around the room at his classmates seeing what they were doing when he wasn't looking. Most regarded him with disinterest or disdain usually a combination of the two. Some of them namely Minas friend group sent him disapproving looks before turning back to their business and didn't take it any further.

Which was fine in Cardins opinion. Even if he was still angry about yesterday's "event" Cardin was fully content to ignore them if they ignored him. Cardin would just simply bide his time until he could get his revenge. "_A true hero lets his actions speak for him." _Cardin growled and shook his head at the thought.

Eventually the rest of Class 1A arrived most mumbling about the reports and shit. With Homeroom finally beginning Eraserhead went up to the podium to begin the day's first lesson.

He walked up to the podium in front of the classroom. "I saw the video and results. Bakugou You're talented, so don't act like a kid.

"I know." The kid in question answered solemnly.

"And Midoriya You settled it by breaking your arm again," Eraserhead continued.

"huh?"

You can't keep saying you can't help it because you can't control your Quirk." Eraserhead clarified. "I don't like saying the same thing over and over. As long as you fix the control issue, there's a lot you'll be able to do. Feel a sense of urgency, Midoriya."

"Yes, sir!" Midoriya responded.

"Cardin." Eraserhead directed his attention to Cardin, who met his gaze, "You possess a large amount of power, but it's all completely useless and detrimental to your goals if you refuse to listen to your partner and run off on your own. Please become more of a team player."

Cardin didn't respond but rather begrudgingly nodded his head.

"Good, Now let's get down to homeroom business. Sorry about the late notice, but today, I'll have you take another special test?!" Eraserhead said calmly.

Cardin felt the entire room tense up at the statement. Clearly the last "special" test had made an impact on them. Not that Cardin was concerned in the least, considering he had won the last test.

"It will be to decide on a class representative." Aizawa declared and a sigh went through the classroom at the announcement. "_Finally a normal class activity." _Most of the class thought.

Then the classroom exploded in shouts.

"I want to be class rep! Pick me!" Kirishima shouted.

"Me too." Denki said raising his hand up.

"I want to do it, too." Jiro calmly said.

"It's a job made for me!" Yuga shouted.

"I'll be the leader!" Mina waved her arms in the air.

Cardin just rolled his eyes at all there pleas.

Cardin could understand why some of them would want to be class rep. It helped students prepare for leading sidekicks and being a top pro hero. So it was an invaluable experience, But at the same time it also meant leading the people in this class and being responsible for them. So the idea of being responsible for these annoying twerps that Cardin had to call classmates was one of the reasons Cardin was one of the few people who didn't raise their hand. Besides Cardin already had experience leading others at Beacon So there was no need for him to volunteer for all this trouble.

"Let me do it! Me!" Bakugo roared.

"SILENCE PLEASE!" Iida screamed and everyone turned to look at him. "It is a job with serious responsibility of leading others. It is not just a job for anyone who wants to do it. It is a calling that requires the trust of those around you. If we want to use democracy to decide on a true leader, then we should hold an election to choose one."

It would have been sound and reasonable logic to Cardin, if it wasn't for the fact Iida also had his hand raised.

"Why do you suggest that?" Denki asked.

"Yeah, We haven't known each other for that long, so how can we have trust or anything in someone?" Tsuyu said.

"If that's the case, and everyone votes for themselves…" Kirishima began before being cut off.

"Don't you think that is precisely why whoever receives the multiple votes here can truly be considered the most suitable person? Iida explained and turned to Iida, "What do you think, Mr. Aizawa?"

"I don't care, as long as you decide before homeroom is over." Eraserhead said tiredly already snuggled into his yellow sleeping bag.

"Thank you very much." Iida said.

And so began the process of voting for class 1A class representative. Cardin could tell that most of his classmates were voting for themselves simply by sneaking a peek at who they were writing down.

Now the question was who was Cardin gonna put down on his ballot? It was a loaded question because that meant Cardin would have to admit they were respectable enough to get the job done and he trusted them not to abuse that power. So that eliminated more than half of the class, and lastly the rep would need to take the job seriously which eliminated most of the remaining options. However that still left one person who came to Cardins mind.

Cardin stared across the room at them for a moment before penciling in his vote.

The results were posted on the board

* * *

**Class Election Results:**

**Izuku Midoriya : 3 Votes**

**Momo Yaoyorozu : 2 Vote**

**Tenya Iida : 1 Vote**

**Katsuki Bakugo : 1 Vote**

**Mashirao Ojiro : 1 Vote**

**Yuga Aoyama : 1 Vote**

**Toru Hagakure : 1 Vote**

**Rikido Sato : 1 Vote**

**Denki Kaminari : 1 Vote**

**Hanta Sero : 1 Vote**

**Mina Ashido : 1 Vote**

**Kyoka Jiro : 1 Vote**

**Eijiro Kirishima : 1 Vote**

**Fumikage Tokoyami : 1 Vote**

**Shoto Todoroki : 1 Vote**

**Koji Koda : 1 Vote**

**Asui Tsuyu : 1 Vote**

**Mezo Shoji : 0 Vote**

**Ochako Uraraka : 0 Vote**

**Cardin Winchester : 0 Vote**

* * *

"I got three votes!" Midoriya gasped in disbelief.

"What Deku! Who the hell voted for him!" Bakugo yelled in anger.

"Well it would be a lot better than voting for someone like you." Kaminira replied offhandedly.

"What did you say." Bakugo turned to him glaring.

Nearby Iida sat down with his head low. "1 Vote, I should have knew this would have happened… that is only expect dog a person calling." Everyone gave him questioning looks. However he was also thinking "_I voted for Midoriya so who voted for me?"_

Aizawa coughed at the front of the class to get everyone's attention. "Based on these results the class rep is Midoriya, and the deputy class rep will be Yaoyorozu.

"S-Seriously?" Midoriya chattered his teeth in the front of the class and Cardin thought a light breeze would have knocked him over.

"That might not be too bad." Tsuyu said placing her finger to her chin in thought.

"After all's said and done, Midoriya can be pretty fired up about things. And besides Yaoyorozu was cool when the class was going over yesterday's battle results!

Cardin didn't care enough to pay attention. Until Finally the bell for lunch rang.

Cardin situated himself in the far corner of the lunchroom room by himself. Giving glares at anyone who tried to approach him. Cardin obviously wasn't welcome back with his classmates table anymore, of course it's not like Cardin cared or anything. He absentmindedly picked at his pile of food in front of him. His thoughts leading back to beacon and his teammates.

Did they think he was dead? Had anyone noticed? What happened with his team? Did anyone care that he was gone? Cardin hoped his team missed him at least. As worthless in a fight as they were sometimes Cardin still considered them some of his only friends, and hoped they at least felt something when he didn't come back from his mission. Cardin Morbidly chuckled at the heat Professor Goodwitch must have taken, but it died down quickly.

**RIIIIINNNNNNG **"_**THERE HAS BEEN A LEVEL 3 SECURITY BREACH. ALL STUDENTS PLEASE EVACUATE OUTDOORS PROMPTLY.**_

Cardin was interrupted from his musings by the sound of the school's alarm going off. All of a sudden all of the students around Cardin jumped to their feet and suddenly began making a break for the door. Cardin jumped to his feet as well, but was confused. An older kid was running by put Cardin grabbed him by the back of his collar and brought him to his face.

"What the hell is going on here!" Cardin yelled over all the commotion.

The startled kid still struggling in Cardin grip answered, "a level three breach means that someone is trespassing on U.A. grounds! I've spent my full school term here and yet I have never had anything like this happen once! You should hurry and get out of here as well!"

Cardin dropped him to the floor and immediately made a beeline for the lunchroom exit. A huge crowd was forming in front of him. Cardin didn't care about that though, pushing and shoving his way forward just like everyone else was. Except for the fact when Cardin did it people did end up moving out of his way one way or another.

"Hey don't push!"

"Ow!"

"Wait, I'm falling!"

"Help!"

The closer Cardin was getting to the exit the harder it was to move forward as everyone was desperately trying to get out.

"Everyone, stop! Slow down! Slow down!" Kirishima and Kaminari were trying to stop the overflow of people. But that was just creating an even larger pile up and making it an even larger mess. Cardin barreled through another couple of people but a voice next him drew his attention.

"Uraraka! Make me float, I have a plan, Make me float, Uraraka!" Iida was reaching out towards her, but the crowd of people was slowly separating them and Cardin knew Uraraka would never be able to use her Quirk on Iida.

Cardin didn't know why he did it, but Cardin decided to help them with whatever Iidas plan was. Reaching out with his substantiality longer arms than Iida Cardin grabbed Urarakas arm and lifted her off the ground and high above the crowd of shoving people.

"Hey! What are you doing let go!" Uraraka said as she struggled uselessly in Cardin grip flailing around. She stopped struggling though when she saw where Cardin was moving her.

She immediately reached out and made contact with Iida through the crowd of people. As he floated through the air Iida's legs sprouted thrusters, his Quirk obviously, and roared to life as he went spinning and tumbling through the air until he made a hard impact into the wall above the exits of the lunchroom. He composed himself before turning his head toward Cardin and the rest of the students in the crowd, "Everyone Stop, everything is fine! It is just the media outside! There is absolutely nothing to panic about! Everything is fine! This is U.A. my fellow students! Let us act in a way befitting the best of the best!" He yelled with more volume then Cardin realized he could muster.

The tension dissipated from the mob and a collective sigh of relief was heard from all in the doorway.

* * *

"Come on class rep. Start today's agenda." Yaoyorozu asked Midoriya in the front of the classroom as Cardin and the rest of class 1 A were sitting back in the homeroom.

"NN-Now, let us decide on the other class officers… But first, I would like to say something." Midoriya took a deep breath before continuing, "I think… that Tenya Iida should be the class rep after all!"

The boy in question sat there with a look of puzzlement on his face.

Midoriya continued, "He was able to get everyone's attention in a creative manner that helped everyone calm down from all the chaos that happened during lunch. So I think that it would be best for Iida to do it."

"I'm good with that, too." Kirishima seconded, "Midoriyas speaking the truth, Iida was a great help at the cafeteria today."

Kaminari shook his head enthusiastically as well, "Yeah, and he kind of looked like the person on the emergency signs, didn't he?"

Cardin for his part gave a simple nod of approval. For all the guys annoying attributes, there was a reason Cardin had decided to vote for him.

The murmurs were cut short by Aizawa though, "you're wasting time. I really don't care what or how you do this, just hurry up and move it along."

Iida stood up calmly, "if the class rep has nominated me, then it cannot be helped. From this day forward, I, Tenya Iida, graciously accept and promise to do my best to carry out the duties of class representative.

"We're counting on you Emergency exit." Kirishima joked light heartedly.

The rest of the class began to chant with him.

"EMERGENCY EXIT IIDA!"

"EMERGENCY EXIT IIDA!"

"EMERGENCY EXIT IIDA!"

"All right that's enough! We have actually classes to get to." Aizawa berated as he came up to the podium as Yaoyorozu and Midoriya took their seats.

"Ahem, for today's hero basic training, it's turned into a class with three instructors, All Might and me, and another teacher who will meet soon." Aizawa explained.

"_Three people?" _Cardin thought. Beacon never did anything like this. The best Cardin had ever gotten was when some weird drunk Huntsman had substituted for a class, and he didn't even teach!"

"Excuse me! What will we be doing?" Sero asked the first one to ask the question on all the students minds.

Pulling out a card from nowhere it was embroidered with the word "Rescue" on it. "Disasters, shipwrecks, landslides, and everything else in between. It will be rescue training.

"_Ugh Rescue training_!" Cardin didn't sign up for this. He was in it for beating up bad guys and saving the day not pulling people out of the snow or mud!

More small talk spread through the room but was quickly quashed by Aizawa, "Hey I'm not done yet, Pay attention will you. You can decide if you want to wear your costume or this time. Because there are probably costumes that limit your abilities, too." He said as he pressed the button to bring out the storage lockers.

"This training session will be taking place off campus, so will be taking a bus, so change quickly. That is all. We start when everyone is ready. I'll be waiting." He announced.

Cardin was obviously going to wear his armor. So he walked over to his storage space to begin the tedious task of putting it on.

* * *

Cardin was one of the last ones out to the bus stop. Because his armor had a lot of straps to keep it nice and secure and therefore took a long time to get ready.

A whistle shrilled through the air, "Class 1-A, gather around! Form two lines side by side by your student numbers in order to make the boarding process go by as smoothly as possible! Iida shouted clearly taking the class rep thing seriously all ready.

Cardin could somehow admire the enthusiasm but that didn't make it any less annoying.

* * *

Cardin wasn't paying attention to any of the conversations going around on the bus and absentmindedly looked at the terrain as the class passed by on the bus in his seat all by himself. All in all it felt very similar to his first Bullhead ride to beacon. Back when Cardin was still king of the world and on his path to being the greatest ever. The path had taken a bit of a detour but Cardin was sure he could handle it. He was brought out of his musings when he heard his name come up.

"Well, if you're talking about flashy and strong, it's gotta be Todoroki and Bakugou, and Cardin though, huh? Though I still don't really know what Cardins Quirk is? Kirishima commented.

"Bakugo's always mad, so he doesn't seem like he'll be popular, though." Tsuyu responded bluntly.

"What the hell! Do you wanna fight!" Bakugo replied in turn.

"See." Tsuyu said unafraid and highlighting her point.

"We haven't known each other that long, so it's amazing that everyone already knows his personality is crap steeped in sewage." Kaminari mused mockingly.

"What's with that vocabulary, bastard?! I'll kill you!" Bakugo yelled at him.

Cardin barked out a laugh at that one.

"Don't act like your attitude is better Cardin. We all know about your rancor personality." Yaoyorozu said to him.

Cardin just clucked his lips and went back to staring out the window.

"We're here now. So all of you stop messing around." Eraserhead yelled to the back.

"Hello Everyone, I have been waiting for you." Cardin and the rest of the class were greeted by a person in a white fluffy suit with a black glass dome head. Cardin couldn't tell if they were a man or a woman.

"It's the space hero, Thirteen! ! The gentlemanly hero who has rescued tons of people from disasters!" Midoriya exclaimed.

Thirteen? The name didn't ring any bells for Cardin. Meaning that they weren't that popular and judging by what everyone else was saying didn't fight to many villains meaning Cardins interest for them was practically zero.

"All right then let's go inside without delay." The Hero said and lead them into the giant domed building in front of them.

The inside was a lot bigger than the outside let on. That was for sure. Cardin counted at least six different biomes. And a multitude of pathways leading around the area.

"A shipwreck, a landslide, a fire, a windstorm, and more. It is the training ground that I made with different types of accidents and disasters. It's called the Unforeseen Simulation Joint or the USJ for short!" The Hero Thirteen proudly revealed.

Aizawa went up to Thirteen to talk about something in private leaving the students to continue their awed exploration of the surrounding areas. They finished and Thriteen turned to the class of students.

"Let's see Before we begin, let me say one thing, or two three four five six seven. Everyone, I am sure you are aware of my Quirk, Black Hole. I can suck up anything and turn it to dust. You have been able to use that Quirk to save people from all kinds of disasters, right? Yes. But it is a power that can kill easily. Some of you also have Quirks like that, right? In a superhuman society, personal Quirks have been certified and stringently regulated, so that doesn't seem to be a problem at first glance. However, please do not forget that there are many Quirks that can easily kill with one wrong step. With Aizawa's physical fitness test you found out about the possibility of your own hidden powers. And with All Might's person-to-person combat training I think you experienced the danger of using those powers against others. This class is a fresh start. You shall learn how to use your Quirks to save people's lives. You do not have powers so you can harm others." Cardin grimaced when he noticed some states go his way. "I hope you leave here with the understanding that you have powers in order to help others. That is all thank you for listening." Thirteen finished.

Cardin and the rest of the class all applauded at the Pro Hero's speech. But suddenly Cardin froze and a shiver went down his spine and through the rest of his body.

Perhaps it was from the years of training to fight grimm and other dangers but for some reason Cardins instincts all of a sudden were screaming danger, specifically that Cardin was in danger right now. A buzzing sound crashed through the air and the lights went dim, the fountain in the center path turned off and on.

Cardin saw it before anyone else, purple smoke emerged from the fountain and into a giant circle. The purple miasma began growing in size exponentially and expanding outward.

"Everyone get into a group right now and don't move!" Eraserhead shouted his voice no longer containing any hints of exhaustion that it usually carried. "Thirteen you protect the students!" He ordered.

"What's that?" Kirishima asked, seeing the wall of purple energy pulsating at the center of the USJ.

Cardin didn't answer though as he was too busy keeping his eyes trained on the purple wall. As though his very sight was the only thing keeping it at bay. Something changed then, a rippling motion appeared on the wall growing quicker and larger by the second. All of a sudden something or rather someone stepped out from the portal, a person in all black with blue hair and what looked like a hand on his face.

He was followed by another, and another, then another and so on as a small army seemed to emerge forth from nowhere at all.

"Is this like the entrance exam where the lessons already started?" Kirishima asked.

"Don't move!" Eraserhead shouted not taking his eyes off the figures coming through the purple portal. He put his google over his eyes.

"Those… Are villains."

* * *

**Authors Notes: And it's a cliffhanger. Sure love those. Sorry about the late chapter. I've been a bit busy lately. But don't worry I'm still working on this story. Just at a slower pace right now. As always comment what you liked and disliked.**


	6. Chapter 6

Villainous Intentions

"Is this like the entrance exam where the lessons already started?" Kirishima asked, taking a step forward with a questioning tone in his voice.

"Don't move!" Eraser Head shouted, not taking his eyes off the figures coming through the purple portal. He put his googles over his eyes.

"Those… Are villains." He said coldly still not taking his eyes off the figures that had rapidly begun appearing. "Thirteen you evacuate the students out of here safely and call reinforcements from the rest of the school. It seems that the trespassing yesterday wasn't just a coincidence." He pressed something against his ear and swore under his breath. "They've even managed to jam my communicator."

"Alright I'm on it." Thirteen answered confidently, turning to the group of students that the hero had been charged with protecting. "Everyone stick together, we'll be much safer out in the open outside of the U.S.J than in here."

"Wait? Villains. How could they have gotten into a place like U.A." Kirishima said in shocked disbelief.

"U.A. Has trespasser sensors right." Yaoyorozu asked, "if that's true shouldn't they have gone off by now?"

"W-What about you Mr. Aizawa?" Midoriya asked who was frozen stiff with tension.

"Isn't it obvious?" Eraser Head said without turning to face Cardin and the rest of the students, slowly walking away and toward the staircase his fists clenched, "I'll be taking care of these guys!"

"But Sir if you fight alone… with that many even if you are able to erase their Quirks." Midoriya went quiet for a moment, visibly tense and shaking slightly before composing himself. "Your style revolves around quickly capturing an enemy after erasing their Quirk. In a full frontal.." He was cut off when Eraser Head turned toward the group for the first time.

"You can't be a hero with just one trick." He said and crouched down, "I'm counting on you Thirteen." And as soon as those words were uttered he sprung down the stairs leading to the water fountain with surprising agility.

When he met the first wave of enemy's Cardin could tell Eraser Head had used his Quirk when the group of villains suddenly backed up in confusion only to be smacked around by Eraser Heads scarf.

Cardin turned back toward his fellow classmates most of whom were still frozen stiff and digesting what was happening to them. They clearly weren't expected to be in the presence of villains within their first week of training. It was showing. One half of the class had nervousness and fear on their faces, while the other half had placed a blank but tense look on themselves.

Cardin felt that he probably was handling it the best right now, thanks to his prior experience combating grimm and missions where the enemy was always going for the kill. But that didn't mean that Cardin was at ease. His hands were tight around the handle of the _Executioner, _fingers itching at the trigger of the Dust and Chain switches.

The stalemate was broken by the loud words of the pro hero teacher Thirteen, "Everyone follow me, We got to get outside the building to call for help if they've managed to block our frequencies." And like a gun going off the entire class came to life immediately turning around and running with the Pro Hero towards the door. Cardin followed suit.

Cardin and the group raced along the long pathway to the set of double doors that lead to their safety. A gust of wind slammed into them for a second and they were forced to stop in their tracks when the black mist from the fountain started to seep from the floor.

It started off as a puddle until it abruptly burst upward like a geyser. It swirled around like a storm for a sec before it pulled itself together and a pair of yellow glowing eyes appeared at the end.

"I won't let you get away." It said, the voice sounded masculine but distorted in way as though its words were being compressed and coming out heavier than they should be for its pitch.

The students at the front of the group took a cautious step back from the tall purple tower of smoke.

It spoke again this time, seemingly putting on a more affable tone. "Nice to meet you. We are the League of Villains. It may be presumptuous, but we invited ourselves in to the home of the heroes, U.A. Highschool. In order to have All Might the Symbol of Peace, take his last breath."

The mist paused for a second to look through the group, "I believe All Might should have been here. Has there been some kind of change? Well that's neither here nor there. This is the part I am to play." And with that like a pair of dragon wings unfolding the mist expanded outward and towards the group of heroes in training.

Thirteen looked like they were about to do something but stopped as soon Bakugo and Kirishima jumped at the Misty Villain posted to take him down.

Bakugo was there first and reached out with a white hot glowing hand and a large explosion blanketed the surrounding area in grey smoke in an instant.

"Did you consider that you'd be beaten by before you even got that chance." Kirishima shouted from somewhere around Cardin who was now not able to see anyone.

For a second it was quiet and Cardin for second thought they'd caught the man by surprise. That hope was squashed when his voice sounded through the area and his large Smokey form emerged from the smoke unscathed. "Oh my, that was dangerous. That right, even though you are only students, you are still valuable golden eggs."

"Quick you two need to get out of the way." Thirteen shouted pointing their fingers at the villain but refusing to act for some reason Cardin didn't know.

"My job is to scatter you all." The villain shouted before tendrils of smoke shot out of the center of his body towards Cardin and the rest of class 1-A, "And torture you to death.

The smoke created a giant wall that quickly enclosed the group in a tight circle and Cardin panicked, drew his weapon and held it out in front of him, preemptively activating his semblance in response to what the villain had said.

As the smoke covered the top opening thoroughly enclosing Cardin in a dark dome of purple and black swirling mist Cardin felt gusts of wind assault his face forcing him to use his free hand to shield his eyes.

"Ahh!"

"What the!"

"I can't see!"

Cardin could hear his classmates shouting in confusion. He could vaguely make out their dark forms of them with the dim light that was able to make it through the smoke's openings. Some of them were standing like he was, others had dropped to the ground to prevent themselves from being blown away and Cardin could see one dark form tackle two other forms out of the way of an especially dark blob of smoke.

Cardin himself barely side stepped one of the extra dark blobs. He heard another shout that was cut off and watched as two silhouettes of what Cardin assumed were his classmates suddenly disappeared after being hit by one of the purplish black blobs.

Had they been blown away or something? All around him Cardin could see students at random begin to disappear into the black smoke.

Jumping in and out of the way of the smoky barriers tumbling around. All the while the shouts and yells of classmates continued to taper off as they disappeared to who knows where.

Cardin didn't know how much he could last. He wasn't known for his dexterity back at Beacon and he hadn't expected himself to suddenly improve now that he was in U.A. the whirlwind seemed to pick up and the pace increased. And at that moment knew he would not be able to keep up and would be left behind.

From the corner of his eyes a black blur appeared, but by the time Cardin turned to face it it was already upon. Thrusting his hands out in an attempt to stop it Cardin tensed and prepared for the worst.

* * *

The cloud was not solid like Cardin had expected. The only way Cardin could describe it was like being submerged in some heavy liquid, it had a cold feeling to it but the liquid didn't get Cardin wet as he initially would have thought once encountering it. In fact It was kind of like getting held in place by Professor Goodwitchs semblance.

It was dark, pitch black and Cardin couldn't see anything. The next thing Cardin felt as he moved through the black void was the sensation of falling as gravity suddenly reaffirmed its hold on him.

Then light flashed and Cardin saw a tunnel with light at the very end and himself speed toward it. Like a speeding dust bullet, Cardin shot out of what he now believed was a portal.

***THUD***

Face first into the floor.

"Ugh." Cardin groaned as he picked himself up from the floor. Rubbing his nose and forehead.

***SNAP***

Cardin looked down at the floor. Rolling around was a long black spike. Reaching up to feel his Cardin grimaced when he felt the rough break on his armors crown. The middle of the three spikes had broken off at the head band portion when he had face planted into the concrete.

"_Whatever" _Cardin thought, "_Those are problems for later." _The first problem was figuring where the hell he was. The things that Cardin could tell was that he was in a room of some sort and that it was really warm. He looked out one of the broken windows in the room and saw a mock city covered in hot orange flames. Cardin was on what looked to be a higher floor if the way the other buildings seem to be elevated was any indication.

Cardin still had his mace in his hand so that was good. He could still fight at top form.

Cardin looked out the shattered window again and saw figures moving out and about. They were all shouting and from the sounds of it fighting. If Cardin was a betting man… er teenager, he'd say that he was in a fire zone or something of the USJ. Which meant he was still inside with the villains which narrowed down the possibility of who exactly it was roaming the streets of the zone waiting for him.

Cardin looked at the door on the other side of the room parallel to the broken window. The door was open and led to a hallway of sorts. But there was smoke coming from it and Cardin knew smoke and his semblance did mix well. So Cardin turned back toward the window, making a snap descion before breaking into a sprint and jumping. Crashing through the remaining glass, Cardin braced himself and landed on the sidewalk with heavy thud followed by some dry asphalt cracking.

"Did you hear that?" A voice shouted.

"That could be one of the U.A. kids." Another voice yelled.

"It's over here, that's where I heard the sound." The first voice shouted.

The sound of loud footsteps could be heard along with the cracking of the surrounding fire.

Cardin didn't waste any time bolting in the opposite direction down the ruined and boring street. He found an alleyway and quickly ducked into it.

A couple seconds later the sound of a bunch of footsteps went by Cardins hiding place.

Thinking back to his leadership classes at Beacon Cardin went over the first lessons they were taught field analysis. Ok what did Cardin know so far. There was a criminal group that called themselves the League of Villains attacking the USJ, they were here because they think they can kill All Might, and since All Mights not here they decided the next best thing they could do was to kill Cardin and the rest of his class, next, the sensors aren't working so the teachers can't contact the rest of the school effectively meaning that Cardin was on his own know, and lastly the purple mist guy teleported Cardin into the inferno zone part of the USJ with who knows how many villains.

"_Okay Cardin, use your Beacon training." _Cardin thought. When dealing with an overwhelming numbers disadvantage, first priority would be to call for backup when dealing with an overrun of grimm. That wasn't an option. Second would be to help the evacuation of civilians, since there weren't any civilians or a way to evacuate right now that step was a no go too. Step three was to wait and hold out until help arrived.

"_Okay, my best bet would be finding a way to contact the heroes on the outside." _Cardin surmised. And to do that he would first have to get out of here.

The exit was definitely on the edge of the building. Since the dizzying drop through the portal screwed up his sense of direction Cardin didn't have the faintest clue where the exit was. But since the area was a dome all he needed to do was circle around the edge till he found it.

Crouching down a bit Cardin peered out from the alley that he was taking refuge in. The coast was clear for now. Using this opportunity Cardin sprinted down the streets in a single direction until he'd hopefully hit the edge of the dome. The entire time doing his best to avoid any groups of villains. It's not that Cardin was scared, he was sure that he could take them but they weren't important right now and would just waste his time and precious aura if he got caught.

Ducking behind a pile of rubble Cardin kept quiet as he heard more footsteps approaching.

"Hey do you really think those guys can kill All Might, because I for one don't think it's possible." A voice said from in front of the place that Cardin was taking cover from.

"If they didn't have a way why would they go through all of the trouble of setting this all up then, you're just being a little sissy." Another voice mocked as the sounds of footsteps stopped.

"_Darn it why did they have to stop right where Cardin was! Get back to walking around like the idiots you are would ya!"_ Cardin thought.

"I am not," the first voice replied in a high pitched shrill, "I'm just saying there's a difference between thinking you can kill All Might and actually being able to. Like have you ever seen him get hurt much less get beaten!" The first voice retorted.

The argument rambled on for a bit and Cardin was seriously considering just chancing it and trying to sneak away or take care of these mooks without any of the other villains noticing instead of having to be stuck here listening to these buffoons.

But while this internal debate going on a gust of smoke from a large fire nearby blew into Cardins face thanks to the surrounding chaos. Being so unprepared for it Cardin breathed it in.

***Cough***

***Cough***

Slamming his hand over his mouth Cardin went still.

"Did you hear that?" One of the voices said.

"As a matter of fact I did." The other one replied. The footsteps approaching the ruble Cardin was behind, making it to his ears.

"_Looks like Plan B it is." _Cardin thought.

Waiting for the footsteps to get as close as possible to him, Cardin waited ready to spring.

"Hey if there is anyone here you best show yourself right now and we promise not to hurt you." One voice said.

"Much." The second voice finished with a snicker.

***Crunch***

The sound of one of their shoes hitting the rubble was all Cardin needed to know where they were. Shooting up Cardin appeared in front of them a blazing inferno to his back making him look like a devil clawing its way out of hell.

The closer one of the two didn't even have a chance to call out for help as Cardin grabbed him by the face with his free hand. Rotating his body with his arm Cardin threw the mook like a sandbag. The guy went flying through a window shattering the glass on his way in. When the Villain didn't immediately get up Cardin turned back to the other villain.

He wasn't too impressive, just a skinny mohawk sporting guy with what looked like some drills attached at his wrists. In a vague way it kinda reminded him of Russell.

Said Villain took a step back from Cardin, "A-All Might!" He said fearfully looking up at him.

"_All Might?" _Cardin thought confused, "_What's this guy going on about?"_ Taking a step forward and into clear view of his one remaining opponent Cardin twirled his mace.

The villain just blinked a couple times before regaining a confident loom on his face. "Ha nice try trying to trick me kid, but it's gonna take more than that to fool me." He said with an arrogant voice. And with that the drills on his wrists whirled to life.

"Oh my, I'm quaking in my boots, I can't move. I'm so frozen in fear." Cardin mocked in a faux fearful voice. "What will I ever do." Cardin face suddenly morphed his face into a grin. "You know if you told me about your crew's entire plans and such I might be persuaded to take it easy on you." He said putting a contemplating tone in his voice.

"Why you." Mr. Mohawk guy was practically shaking in rage, "I'm gonna make you regret opening your fucking mouth." He jumped forward drills spinning intending to run Cardin through.

Cardin took a step to the side and stuck his leg out letting the guys' own momentum take himself down to the ground in a heap. Gosh this guy could give Jaune a run for his money on combat style.

"Let start with how many of your friends are here in the USJ." Cardin said nonchalantly.

"Arghhh!" the guy screamed, jumping up, shooting his drill arm up into Cardins chest. Screaming again in rage as that attack was also sidestepped.

"How about the way you got into U.A. to begin with?" Another scream and swipe was Cardins answer.

Seeing that this was getting nowhere Cardin decided perhaps it was time for a change in strategy. Standing still as the Russell knock-off recovered and jabbed his spinning drill out toward Cardins chest.

***Buzz***

***Scrape***

***Crack***

***Scrape***

"Ha that's what you get you cocky son of bitch!" The villain laughed. He looked up into Cardins unworried eyes and his face turned from triumph to confusion, until finally looking down to his arm where he believed he'd pierced Cardin. The drill just spun there sparking and crackling against Cardins armor, Cardin not even needing to waste his aura to block the attack.

"Oh dear, it seems that I've been impaled!" Cardin said calmly, as he grabbed the guy by the throat with a single hand, "Whatever will I do?"

The look of understanding finally dawned on the villains face, realizing how out matched he was right now. Then he started struggling against the iron grip on his throat.

Cardin now in control of the situation leisurely clipped his mace back on to his side and threw some gut and kidney punches to get the Villian to stop struggling.

Once he did, Cardin began to speak, "Now where was I, oh yeah, how many of you are there? Where's the exit? And how do you plan to kill All Might?"

"Eat shit, I ain't telling you jack!" He spat venomously at Cardin.

Cardin gave him a right hook to the face as a way of giving him a chance to reconsidering his answer. "Care to repeat that?"

He spat out blood, "I said eat shit and die, I ain't giving you anything." Cardin gave him a nut shot for that one.

Cardin looked around the area, "Hmm? maybe I'm not being clear enough." Walking over to one of the burning fires in the area bringing the villain along with him. Cardin lowered his arm and along with it the guys face closer to the burning hot flames, close enough for the guy to be able to feel the waves of heat on his face. "Am I being clear enough now?"

"You ain't gonna do shit! You're a hero student! You can't do stuff like this." The villain scoffed.

"Yeah I guess heroes can't really do stuff like this since it frowned upon." Cardin mused and lifted the villains head up from the fire, who gave a sigh of relief. Until quickly jamming his head further into the fire, enough so that it was pretty likely that his eyebrows were being singed off. "But it's not like I had a choice." Cardin said nonchalantly, "I was cornered by a villain, and it was either him or me, you know? No one would blame me."

"Aaagh, it burns it burns." The Villain shouted.

"Sounds like you're ready to reconsider what I was asking?" Cardin asked and lifted him back up, away from the fire. "Right?" He added threatenly

"Alright, alright I'll talk I'll talk!" The Mohawked Villain panted.

"That's what I like to hear, now get talking, for starters where's the exit to this zone? How'd you get in without setting off the sensors? How many villains are in the

USJ? And how did you expect to kill All Might?" Cardin asked with faux politeness.

* * *

**Eraser Head **

"_20." _Aizawa thought as he pulled one of the villains into his knee as a follow up to getting wrapped up by his capture bands.

Springing off the body of the now unconscious villain Aizawa flipped over two villains coming from behind him. One covered in a white helmet and the other wielding a metal spear. Using that as a distraction he swiped their feet out from under them with the capture bands.

With a strong yanking motion Aizawa pulled them upward and using the gravity acting on him to accelerate downward he drove them both back down into the concrete with his boots. "_21, 22." _He thought.

He looked up to see him running at the blue haired hand covered villain. "The Last Boss?" Aizawa said, confused. Usually when fighting a larger group of villains the big bad didn't show up until the cannon fodder was out of the way. But it was still an opportunity, taking down this one would possibly scare the rest into submission. Eraser Head shot out one end of his capture tape toward the incoming villain.

Displaying fast reflexes, the blue haired villain caught the tape in one hand and Eraser Head could hear him say something, "23 seconds, 20 seconds."

Grabbing the tape once again Eraser Head used the opportunity to send a right elbow into the gut of the villain. But Eraser Head grit his teeth when he felt the villains free arm bracing him from the blow, "_Dammit, he is faster and more agile than he lets on. And I'm getting tired too."_

The villain leaned forward until he right above his head, "it's hard to see because you keep moving around, but there's an instant when your hair falls." He said.

Behind his mask Eraser Heads eyes widened in alarm, "_He is smart as well." _He thought. As soon as the words left the villains mouth something happened. Eraser Head felt a sensation on his elbow and he felt the clothes of his shirt on his elbow turn brittle. "That's when you've finished an action. And that space in between has gotten shorter and shorter. Don't push yourself, Eraser Head." Suddenly the feeling shifted from his clothes to his very flesh and Eraser Head immediately knew that it was the villain's Quirk that was causing this. Eraser Head watched as the skin covering his arm flaked off leaving only his muscle tissue to be seen and even then the feeling persisted.

Acting fast Eraser Head broke the hold and sent a fist to the face of the other villain to get him to back off. "_My elbow's crumbling to dust!" _

Sensing a presence behind him Eraser Head ducked under the swing of one of the small time villains. Followed up by a bunch of clumsy and reckless swings. After fending them off he was forced to catch his breath all the while the blue haired villain taunted him after picking himself up from the ground.

"That Quirk isn't suited for fighting long fights against a large group, is it? Isn't this too different from your usual job? What you're good at is a short fight after getting a surprise attack on the opponent, right? But even so, you jumped right in to fight us from the front. Was that all to put your students at ease?" He questioned.

Eraser Head once again was forced to activate his Quirk for what felt like the millionth time in the fight. As a clawed villain took a swipe at him, quickly sidestepping it he used the capture tape to throw them in front of a strike meant at him. Then turning around to deliver a kick to the face of the gorilla armed villain trying to get the drop on him.

"You're so cool … You're so cool!" the villain opened his arms outward in a praising manner but Aizawa for the first time was able to get a glimpse of behind the hand covering the villains face. A smile was plastered on the partially hidden face, not a good kind. "But by the way, Hero … I'm not the last boss."

Eraser Heads instincts flared to life as he felt "something" loom behind him; he turned to see a mountain of a villain to the side of him. It's head slowly turned to Aizawa looking at him with unblinking eyes, in a flash a hand reached out and was followed by blood and a broken mask.

***CRUNCH***

Nearby the group of Sero, Tsuyu and Midoriya could only watch in horror as they saw what happened.

* * *

**Cardin**

Cardin ran out of the fire zone leaving behind the body of one unconscious Villain. Turns out the guy wasn't actually that helpful. The guy only told Cardin that he and the rest of the small-time villains were all recruited by the black mist guy and the blue haired handy guy who Cardin saw come out of the portal first.

"_He said we only had to take out the small fry and other teachers while they took care of All Might. They never actually said how they were gonna do the deed." _

"_How? How could they possibly kill All Might." _Cardin was new to this world for sure, but he was pretty sure that there was no one on All Mights level. In fact Cardin not only believed that none of the huntsmen on Remnant could compare to All Might but that if Remnant had some like him acting as the symbol of peace the world would be a lot better off not only power wise but the less negativity that would be generated would make the grimm less powerful.

Meanwhile Cardin was barely 50 meters out of the place before he was given a clue to where the rest of the bad guys were.

"AAarrggh"

A scream echoed from the center of the center pathway. Cardin thinking quick dove to the ground and behind some of the shrubbery that was in front of the landslide zone of the USJ.

Carefully Cardin peaked through the brush. He did not like what he saw. Crumpled in a heap of blood was Mr. Aizawa and sitting on top of him was a large villain even by Cardins standards. It seemed to loom over Mr. Aizawa like a shadow, it's black skin was taut with barely restrained muscle and long red scars, but is most distinguishing feature was its head, a exposed pink and pulsating brain took up almost the entirety of its skull leaving just enough room for two bulbous eyes and a beak like jaw sporting rows of shark like teeth.

The blue haired villain that the small fry had told Cardin was the leader was looking down and speaking to him, probably one of those stupid villain monologues like the ones that Cardin had heard on the news from eccentric criminals like Roman Torchwick.

Beads of sweat built up above Cardins eyebrows. This felt different, his instincts honed over years of training against grimm and students kept him tense and locked in place. These villains weren't normal cannon fodder that Cardin had found in the fire disaster zone, these were the big bads. He didn't feel as confident as he usually did, and to be honest when looking at the crumpled form of his teacher Cardin was pretty sure this was a fight he couldn't win.

But he didn't need to be in this fight a voice whispered in his head. " _That's right it isn't your job to step in, the best huntsman was a live huntsmen." _The voice whispered in the back of Cardins mind. That's right, this wasn't Cardins fight. He wasn't expected to fight villains like these in his first month of hero training much less at all especially in the first year.

Besides they hadn't even noticed him, he could sneak away and no one would be the wiser. Mr. Aizawa was a teacher, he'd signed up for this and was the one to jump out and face the villains by himself, he'd clearly made his choice and knew the consequences of it. Cardin tried to reassure himself and began to sneak away.

When he took the first step an recent voice in his head whispered, "_A hero gets to the top by letting their actions speak for themselves." _Cardin ignored it and took another step "_we're here to learn how to be pro Heroes not thugs."_

This was so stupid now those dumb classmates of his were trying to get into his head. Half of them were just naive idiots who did not know the callous and cold nature of the real world, but Cardin knew he wasn't just some hopelessly idealistic hunstm-hero that would be used and crushed by the system. Those fools that burned so bright trying to save everyone that they couldn't even save themselves. No, He was gonna leave this area safe and sound like he should. "_That's right I'm gonna do the smart thing!" Cardin thought. _

"Argh"

Another cry of pain and a snap of bone came from the centered area and Cardin chanced a glance back at the "fight" that was going on.

The hulking black monster since honestly in Cardin opinion it was closer to that than a Villain more akin to a grimm than anything else. The thing seemed to be making an effort to break Mr. Aizawas spirit as well as his body.

Cardin looked back to his pathway out of here. It was still clear and probably would remain that way with all the other moods and fodder focusing on Cardins classmates.

"_Yeah I should get out of here, Nothing good could come out of me trying to step in." _Cardin rationalized. Once again the same voice from before whispered in the back of his mind, to the point He should probably see someone about it. "_Jaune didn't need a reason to step in a save your ass did he?" _

"_Yeah and Jaunes is an idiot who'd try to domesticate a grimm if it meant he didn't have to kill it. There was a reason he was for all of Goodwitchs bluster STILL at the bottom of the class." Cardin _thought of banishing the traitorous voice to the back of his head.

There was no benefit to getting involved in suicidal missions and positions like team JNPR and team RWBY. No reason whatsoever… Then again they were at the top of the class. And even though Cardin still believed himself on or above most of RWBY and JNPR level there was no denying that he could feel the gap shortening as the year went on. Maybe all the danger they got themselves into was a catalyst to their improvements not a symptom.

Once again Cardin found himself looking between the path leading away and the center area turned battle arena.

He took a deep breath and sighed before finally making his choice.

* * *

**With Students up at the U.S.J entrance**

"Is the rest of everyone still in the U.S.J.! Can you confirm that?" Tenya shouted over to Shoji.

"We're scattered and in disarray but from the people I've been able to locate it seems like we've all been warped to random areas of the facility." Shoji answered firmly.

"Class President." Thirteen yelled.

"Yes Sir." Tenya answered immediately.

"I entrust this task with you, Dash as fast and quickly as you can to the doors and alert the rest of the faculty to this intrusion. Our communications rely on infrared scanners, it's likely to be the work of some interference quirk by one of the villains here. Seeing how Eraserhead has been erasing quirks left and right down there and yet there's been no change means that the Villain, whoever he or she might be, have hidden themselves from the beginning. Making our only option to be getting help through direct contact." Thirteen ordered.

"But it would be a disgrace for me as Class President to abando-" Iida made to argue but was swiftly cut off by Sado and Mina.

"You can alert the outside faster than anyone else and if these guy went through all the trouble to keep us here there must be a reason they're here." Sado said.

"Meaning they are not likely to follow you once you get out." Mina finished.

"Besides no one can provide support like we can." Ochako said punching a fist into her palm.

"Please use your quirk to save others." Thirteen said sagely. "You are our best hope, Class President."

Iida looked around at his classmates before his gave hardened "Alright."

"Ahem"

The students' attention was shifted back to the villain blocking off their escape.

"While I may or may not be able to stop him, I find it surprising that there are still simpletons around us who would spout off their plans while in the company of their enemies." He pointed out before lunging forward and expanding outward toward Iida specifically.

He was about three fourths away to him before the Villain found himself being pulled away at an alarming speed.

"Isn't it obvious." Thirteens voice carried over the area, " we let you hear us because it didn't matter if you knew or not.

* * *

**On the other of the battle with Midoriya, Sero and Tsuyu **

Midoriya looked on with muted horror a hand over his mouth to cover any gasps as the large black villain that the blue haired one referred to as Nomu shoved Mr. Aizawas head into the concrete.

"Midoriya are you sure you're not having second thoughts about this." Sero whispered. "There's gotta be something we can do?"

"Anything we do would only make it worse, the best we can do is stand by and wait for the pro heroes to arrive if we're able to get a message through." Tsuyu said the voice of reason.

Midoriya agreed but couldn't help feel conflicted. "_I feel so powerless, it's like I'm quirkless all over again."_

* * *

**Shigaraki**

He looked down at the broken hero that was formerly the feared Eraser Head laid down before him, his Nomu on top of the pro hero holding the man in place. It was a satisfying feeling looking down on one that so many people looked up to, as though this in itself was enough proof of his achievements.

He looked to the top of the stairs looking around for the true prize. No he didn't seem to be here, _yet. _

He turned his attention back to the current hero in front of him. "You can erase quirks, a respectable ability but there's nothing else to it in the end though. Because after all when faced in opposition to overwhelming you might as well be quirkless."

As if to accentuate his point Nomu twisted one the hero's arms until a cracking sound was heard.

"It's time All Might learned he was wanted by his superior, the artificial human Nomu!" He said spreading his arms out wide in triumph, a chuckle escaping his mouth as he did so.

"But it seems like he isn't here even though the schedule we got said he would be. I guess I'll have to start upping the ante then. Maybe he'll come rushing to the rescue if he learns that one of his comrades is going to die."

Shigaraki looked towards Nomu, "Kill him slowly."

Nearby Midoriya tensed ready to spring into action.

Nomu raised its hand above its head into a fist before bringing it down to bludgeon Eraser Heads cranium open.

***CLANK***

Nomus fist stopped inches from Eraser Heads face. A chain with a large metal head at the end wrapped around its foreman pulled taunt preventing it from going any lower.

With a sudden jerk the chain retracted to where it came from pulling Nomu off Eraser Head and immediately was swung into the pavement a good 20 feet away. The chain unwrapping and retracting back to form the head of a Mace.

The black mace was held in the hand of a teenager walking into the clearing with a confident swagger in their stride as they strode into the center of the U.S.J to face Shigaraki. The tall armored teen came to a stop in front of Shigaraki, an arrogant smile plastered on his face that already seemed to get on his nerves.

Twirling his mace in one hand the hero student leveled his head down towards Shigaraki from the distance between the two.

"Look we've both played this game before, heroes vs villains. And we both know what part of the game we're at." He said confidently. He pointed his weapon towards Shigaraki and the red center of the mace glowed dangerously.

"Oh really, then do tell, which part of the game are we at." Shigaraki responded more than ready to deal with this annoyance.

"Why, this is the part where you lose." Cardin Winchester proudly proclaimed.

* * *

**Author's Notes: And I'm back, I didn't really expect this to take so long, but then again I didn't really expect this year to happen like this either. But I'm still invested in this story it's just Covid-19 has really thrown my life out of whack especially with some of the changes going on in my life. So good luck to anyone else struggling right now. As always comment on what you didn't and did like. And hopefully I can the next chapter out quicker than this one,**


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